


Andi Mack Season 4

by nuclearnicole



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Coming Out, F/F, F/M, Homecoming Dance, Iris comes back because I missed her, M/M, Muffy - Freeform, Tyrus - Freeform, Walker goes to SAVA too, eventual ambi, grant high school, jonah is an independant man who don't need no woman, sava, season four
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-10-12 20:20:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 25,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20570294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nuclearnicole/pseuds/nuclearnicole
Summary: The summer is over and high school has begun. How will the first year of high school go for the Good Hair Crew and their friends?Episode 1: First day of school at SAVA and GrantEpisode 2: TJ and Cyrus talk to people from their pastsEpisode 3: Homecoming dance





	1. First Day Heys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Episode Synopsis: It’s the Good Hair Crew’s first day of high school. Will it live up to their expectations, or will there be a few surprises?

Binders: Check 

Notebooks: Check 

Pencils: Check 

Backpack: Check 

Cute Locker Magnets: Check 

Gigantic Bag of Assorted Art Supplies: Check 

Andi went over the list of everything she needed for her first day of SAVA fifty times in her head, but she still felt like she was forgetting something. She had bought all her school supplies a month ago, packed it all into her bag a week ago, and had spent the last few days freaking out that this was actually happening. She was actually going to SAVA in—she looked at her clock—two hours. She hadn't been able to sleep all night because the first day of school was finally almost here. She laid in bed going through her checklist for a few more minutes before deciding that it was probably a reasonable enough time for her to get up and start getting ready. She had spent all summer agonizing over what her first day of school outfit should be. Of course, she had to wear something flashy. She usually did that anyway, but now that she was in art school that was only more of a reason to be even flashier. She also didn't want to stand out too much as a new kid though. It had taken her months but she had finally figured out the perfect outfit—a pink overall dress over a polka dot shirt with matching shoes. She thought it was just enough to stand out without going overboard. No outfit that had overalls could be considered overboard, right? Just to be sure, she snapped a photo of the look in her mirror and sent it to the GHC group chat:

**Andi (5:14am):** (One Image Attached) This isn't too much right. Should I just wear normal colored overalls? Are overalls even a thing still? The more I look at the word “overalls” the faker it becomes. Help.

**Cyrus (5:15am):** No, it looks great! I already told you that though.

**Buffy (5:15am):** ?????? Why are you two awake???? Go back to sleep!

**Cyrus (5:15am): **Sorry! I'm just so excited for our first day of high school that I can't sleep.

**Andi (5:15am):** Me too

**Buffy (5:16am):** Well, please be excited somewhere other than this group chat. Andi, your school doesn’t start until 7:30, and Cyrus ours doesn’t start until 7:45 so why are we up at 5:15??????? I was planning on stumbling out of bed at 7.

Andi rolled her eyes and put down her phone. She couldn’t be like Buffy and somehow look flawless within 15 minutes. She needed a lot more time than that every morning to pull herself together. She had recently gotten her hair cut so there wasn't a whole lot she could do with it. When she had gotten her hair cut a week ago she had thought that keeping it super short was a good idea because then there was less of a chance for her to get paint all over her hair. Now though, she wished that she had kept it long enough for it to still be braidable. She figured that it was fine. She would just _ wow _ everyone with her makeup skills instead.

She was looking around for the perfect shade of eyeshadow when she heard a knock on her door. "Come in," she said.

Her door opened and a very tired looking Bex walked in. "Hey... Why are you awake at-", she looked at her phone, "5:56? We don't have to leave until 7:15."

Andi looked away sheepishly. "Uh, sorry. I just wanted to have enough time to get ready. I didn't wake you guys right?"

Bex smirked. "No, you didn't, but the sounds of the drawers on your makeup organizer opening and closing a hundred times did."

Andi winced. "Sorry. I just had a hard time finding the right shade of eyeshadow. I had this really specific light pink shade in mind but I can't remember which pallet it’s in and-"

"Hey," Bex sat down on Andi's bed and motioned for her to come over. "It's okay. Come over and chill with me for a second."

Andi sat down next to Bex.

“I want you to take a deep breath in and out. Can you do that?”

Andi nodded. She took a long breath in, and as she breathed out she released a huge amount of tension that she hadn’t even realized she was holding from her body.

“Better?”

“Yeah. I’m just really nervous. What if-”

“Hey,” Bex grabbed Andi’s wrist and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “Don’t worry about ‘what-ifs’. Just focus on what is happening right now in the present. The present is pretty good, right? Your outfit looks really nice and we’re laying on your comfy bed. Actually, your bed is really comfy. I think we should just take a nap until it’s time to leave.” Bex closed her eyes and started to lay back on Andi’s bed, but Andi stood up quickly causing the entire bed to shake.

“We still need to find my missing eye shadow!” Andi said as she frantically started rummaging through her makeup supplies.

Bex sighed. “Okay, but after we find it then can we lay down for a few minutes? Everything is going to be okay, I promise."

* * *

Everything was not okay. Cyrus was freaking out. Should he text the GHC group chat again? No, Andi was having a freakout of her own and she didn’t need to deal with his stress too, and he knew Buffy would kill him if he woke her up twice in one morning. Should he text TJ? He looked at his clock. It was 6:56am. School started at 7:45am which meant that TJ was probably up, right? Or he was at least about to get up? What if he wasn't though? He had been wearing less hair gel lately so it probably wouldn't take him long to get ready. Cyrus decided that he should wait to text him. He laid on his bed for five seconds before deciding that actually TJ was probably up so he should just text him. They needed to talk about something anyway. Well, they had already talked about it, but they should probably talk about it again. Just one more time so everything was clear. Yeah, he was going to text TJ: 

**Cyrus (6:57am): **Hey

Exactly 12 seconds later he got a reply:

**Teej <3 (6:57am): **Hey are you freaking out?

**Cyrus (6:57am):** Yes... sometimes I think you know me too well. Were you asleep? Sorry. 

**Teej <3 (6:57am):** I was about to wake up

**Teej <3 (6:57am):** Wassup?

**Cyrus (6:58am): **Okay, so I know we already talked about this but as the saying goes "communication is key", and I don't think we can ever have too much communication so this is me communicating...

**Teej <3 (6:58am): **I think I know what this is about

**Cyrus (6:58am):** If you think this is about our relationship status and if we want people to know what it is then yes… that is what this is about. Are you sure that you're okay if I tell people?

**Teej <3 (6:59am):** Yeah Cy

**Teej <3 (6:59am): **If any of my basketball friends ask if we're dating I'm just gonna tell them the truth and you can tell your school friends too, but idk if I'm cool with like going around telling everyone. Not yet at least.

**Cyrus (7:00am):** That's fine! We don't have to be public until you’re ready. Honestly, I'm not 100% ready either. Maybe if we were still in Jefferson but Grant is a whole new ballpark with upperclassmen who are intimidating and can drive and everything.

**Teej <3 (7:00am):** I'm sure all the upperclassmen will be really nice

**Teej <3 (7:00am): **You like me even though I'm intimidating and can drive

**Cyrus (7:01am): **Driving golf carts doesn't count, and you're not intimidating. It's just your face. 

**Teej <3 (7:01am):** My face is intimidating?

**Cyrus (7:01am): **No, ah! Sorry, ignore everything I say. It’s 7am. Your face is fine. I like your face. Just, like, your resting face is intimidating.

**Teej <3 (7:01am):** So I should just never let my face rest ever again?

**Cyrus (7:01am): **Yes, keep smiling forever. 

**Teej <3 (7:01am):** I think that might hurt after a while

**Cyrus (7:02am):** But your smile is cute :((((

**Teej <3 (7:02am): **Yours is cuter ;)

**Teej <3 (7:02am):** As much as I want to keep laying in bed texting you, my alarm went off two minutes ago so I gotta start getting ready 

**Teej <3 (7:02am):** See you soon <3

**Cyrus (7:02am):** <3

Cyrus couldn't keep the smile off his face as he put down his phone. Even after three months of dating TJ, sometimes he still couldn't believe that it was real. That he could call a boy cute and that boy would call him cute back. 

His relationship with TJ wasn't always easy though. Well, actually being with TJ was easy. Every time they hung out, their conversations flowed so naturally that they barely even noticed when hours had passed, and Cyrus didn't think he would ever get tired of holding TJ's hand. That was when they were in their own personal bubble though. Things got complicated when it came to deciding who would know about their bubble. TJ told his mom the day after the party, and a few days later he told Cyrus that it was okay if he told the Good Hair Crew. Over the summer as they had group hangouts at the spoon, they had eventually told Jonah and Marty that they were together as well. Cyrus hadn't told any of his parents that he and TJ were together though, or even that he was gay. He had thought about telling his mom several times, but he wanted all four of his parents to be together so he could just get it over with once. Unfortunately, it was rare that they were all in the same room. He and TJ had talked a few times over the summer about how they wanted to present their relationship at school. TJ thought of the time that he played "Born This Way" in front of half their grade at Andi's party as his 'coming out', and didn't really want to go back in the closet. Cyrus felt the same way. They had agreed that they weren't necessarily going to hide that they were together, but they also weren't going to be overly affectionate while at school. If anyone they were friendly with like TJ's basketball team or the Space Otters asked if they were together, they would be open about it. 

Cyrus's phone vibrated:

**Andi (7:10am):** Leaving my house now for my first day of SAVA!!!! Only 20 minutes until I'm officially officially a student there!!!

**Buffy (7:10am):** Good luck!

Cyrus sent back a quick reply:

**Cyrus (7:11am): **You got this!

He then got up and started getting ready for his own school day. 

* * *

After her conversation with Bex, Andi was feeling a lot better. They had managed to find the eye shadow she had been looking for, and she had actually gotten her eyeliner to be almost completely even for once. Now, she was sitting in Bex’s passenger seat listening to calming indie music. She hadn’t memorized the route to SAVA from their house yet, but she knew that they were getting close. To try and pass the time she scrolled through her phone and reread all the encouraging texts that she had gotten from her friends that morning on top of the ones from the GHC:

**Jonah (7:05am): **Good luck at your new school Andiman! I know you’re gonna make some great art.

**Ambs (7:12am): **Have an amazing first day at SAVA Bambi! I know you’re gonna kill it!

She was a bit surprised that she even got texts from Marty and TJ, but she had spent a good amount of time with them over the summer by extension since they were both usually with Buffy and Cyrus:

**Marty (from the Party) (7:17am): **Good luck at your new school!

**TJ (7:19am): **Hey I hope you have a great first day at your new art school

“We’re here”, Bex announced. Andi looked up and out the window. It was so weird seeing SAVA again but not as a place she was going to tour but as a place where she was going to learn. She was going to be there all day, and then all day the next day, and the next. Every day except weekends, unless she found a cool club to join then maybe she would be there even more. She couldn’t wait!

The car came to a stop outside of the main entrance. Andi watched as different groups of students entered the building. She saw a girl wearing a bright yellow crop top with matching yellow crocs and it made her feel a lot better about her own outfit not coming off as too much. 

“Have a great first day. I love you. I’ll be back to pick you up at 3.”

“Bye, mom. Love you!”

Andi took a deep breath and walked towards the front doors.

* * *

“Hey, you don’t look great,” Buffy heard her boyfriend say from behind her. She was standing outside of Grant High School checking her schedule one last time before heading inside. 

“That’s a great way to greet your girlfriend,” she said sarcastically. 

Marty gave her a nervous smile. “Sorry, it’s just that you look more like you do during our ‘chill on the couch’ dates then you do on our like ‘fancy go out dates’, and I thought you would be dressed like a ‘fancy go out date’ today.”

Buffy raised an eyebrow. “This isn’t a date. We’re at school.”

“I know! I just, look, you look great. You always look great. I just wasn’t expecting you to be wearing sweatpants, but you’re rocking them.”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t planning on wearing sweatpants today but Andi and Cyrus started texting me at 5am and I couldn’t fall back asleep. When my alarm went off, I didn’t have the energy to get up so I laid in my bed for 15 extra minutes then rolled out with just enough time to catch the bus.”

“Oh, that sucks. Just a warning, I’m pretty sure Grant does class photos on the first day so maybe try to clean the ketchup stain off your hoodie before then.”

Buffy looked down and noticed for the first time that yes, the hoodie she had thrown on as she rushed out of her room that morning did, in fact, have a giant ketchup stain. She shrugged. “I’m pretty tall so they usually put me in the back anyway. Plus, the first day of classes always has so much happening with attendance and syllabuses and everything that no one remembers who anyone is. I’ll dress nice tomorrow.” 

“Sounds good,” Marty said as he gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Sorry, I should have done that earlier instead of insulting you.”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Just walk me to my first class, Martin.”

* * *

Andi’s first class of the day was Intro to Painting. She couldn’t help but look around at all the amazing art in the room as her teacher began to call attendance. 

“Fate Lindenberg,” her teacher called from the front of the room.

“Here.”

All around her were paintings that had been created by former students. There were some that were black and white and others that had been created with bright colors.

“Richard Mable”

“Here. I go by Rich.”

Some paintings were abstract while others looked like photographs.

“Lauren Miller”

“Here.”

Her favorite piece of artwork was a small painting of colorful paper cranes that was hanging next to her teacher’s desk.

“Hannah Newtown.”

Andi stopped looking at the paintings and looked back at her teacher. She was confused. Why hadn’t her name been called with the other ‘M’s? Maybe the new students were at the end of attendance? Everyone had been in alphabetical order so far though, and this was an introductory class so she was sure that most students were probably freshmen like her. Had her teacher accidentally skipped over her name or was she not on the list at all?

* * *

Cyrus Goodman had taken approximately 2 1/2 steps into Grant High School for the first time before TJ Kippen's arm was slung over his shoulder.

"Hey, Underdog. What's up?"

"Oh, ya know. Gas prices, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, and my stress level since it's my first day of high school and I don't think I was built to handle this."

TJ smiled and Cyrus instantly became a bit more relaxed. "I'm sure that you'll be fine. I bet that high school is gonna be pretty much just like middle school. Yeah, you'll have some upperclassmen in your elective probably, but most of your classes will be with other freshmen like us who are also nervous."

"My elective this marking period is ceramics seventh period. What if I have to sit next to a senior and they crush my bowl or whatever it is that I have to make?" Cyrus stopped in front of Room 203. "This is my homeroom. You're in 205 right?"

"Yeah, but back to what you said about bowls being destroyed or whatever. Do you seriously think that's gonna happen?"

"No... but to be on the safe side can you walk me there? I know we both have lunch sixth and you have piano seventh and I looked up a map of the school and the music and art classes are-"

"Cyrus, I'll walk you. That's what-" he glanced around the hallway to see if anyone was close enough to hear what he was gonna say next, "That's what boyfriends are for, right? To make sure you get to your class?" he said with a smile.

"Yeah." Cyrus smiled back. "See you at lunch?"

"Wouldn't miss it, and I can't miss it actually since ya know that would be cutting and I don't want to get in trouble on my first day."

“For skipping lunch?"

"What can I say? You know I like to live on the edge."

Cyrus rolled his eyes before reaching down and giving TJ's hand a gentle squeeze. "See you later," he said softly.

"Yeah, see ya." 

* * *

The second that the bell ending first period rang, Andi shot up and made her way over to her teacher's desk. She had barely been able to pay attention all period because she was so worried about why her name hadn't been called for attendance.

"Hello, Mrs. Peters."

Mrs. Peters smiled at her. "Yes, can I help you?"

"Yeah, um, I'm not sure if you just missed it, but I didn't hear my name called during attendance."

Mrs. Peters looked around for a second before finding the attendance list and holding it up. "What's your name, dear?"

"Andi Mack."

Mr. Peters looked up and down the list a few times with a frown on her face. "I'm sorry Andi, but I don't see your name. Are you sure that you're in the right class?"

Andi's stomach dropped. "Yes, I think so. Intro to Painting in room 104A?"

"Yes, that's correct." Mr. Peters picked up a sticky note and scribbled something down onto it before handing it to Andi. "Here, this is the name and room number of the guidance counselor. Go talk to her and I'm sure she'll help you sort this out."

Andi sighed. The next class on her schedule was 3D Art and she was excited to find out what projects they were going to do in that class. Instead, she was going to have to miss it and go to the guidance counselor's office instead. How long was this going to take? Was she going to miss the whole class period? What if there was a problem and she wasn't in the system at all? Was her acceptance letter a mistake? Surely not since she had gotten a schedule and everything, right? She tried to calm herself down as she made her way to the room number on the sticky note. 

* * *

"Hey Cy Guy. We're sitting together right?" Jonah said as he joined Cyrus on his walk to the cafeteria for lunch.

"Yeah, sounds good. TJ, Marty, and Buffy also have sixth-period lunch. I don't know how that happened but I'm not gonna question it. I think that the universe just knew how anxious and sad I would be if one of us was in a different lunch and decided to go easy on me."

Jonah's smile shifted a bit, but Cyrus didn't notice. "Oh, yeah. That's cool. I mean it's great that you and Buffy both get to be with your significant others."

Cyrus smiled. "I still love hearing people say that word about us. 'Buffy and Cyrus and their significant others' has a nice ring to it. Okay, it's a little long, but I still like hearing it."

Jonah couldn't help but notice the tightness forming in his chest. He wasn't sure why it was happening though. He wasn't jealous of Buffy and Cyrus for being in relationships. He had actually enjoyed spending the entire summer being single after spending the better part of two years having one drama-filled relationship after another. Plus, he liked TJ and Marty. He liked hanging out with them a lot actually. It was just that the thought of fifth wheeling the two couples at lunch_ every _day seemed like a lot. He tried to calm himself down as he and Cyrus entered the cafeteria. Having a panic attack in front of everyone in the cafeteria was not how he wanted to start high school. 

"Hey, Jonah. Are you okay?" Cyrus asked quietly as he gently grabbed onto Jonah's arm.

"Yeah, I'm good." Jonah spotted Buffy and Marty sitting at a table a few feet away. He motioned towards them. "Looks like they already found us a table."

As they sat down, Marty turned to them. "Oh, hey guys. We were just talking about basketball. Tryouts are a month away but one of the guys who was on the team at Jefferson was in my second-period class, and it got me all excited because I’m pretty sure that I’m good enough to make the team this year."

"You're definitely gonna make the team," Buffy told him reassuringly. "Trust me, I wouldn't lie to you if I thought you weren't skilled enough. Your practice this summer has really paid off."

"Buffy, are you going to start a girl's team here? I haven't heard you talk about it,” Cyrus asked as he sat down.

Buffy looked a bit stressed all of a sudden. "I'm not sure... I'm still figuring out the logistics of it. I'll let you know later."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to bring up a bad topic."

"It's fine."

"Hey, wassup guys?" TJ said as he took the seat next to Cyrus that Jonah was just planning on sitting down at. The only open seat left was next to Marty. Jonah would have preferred being next to Cyrus or Buffy since he knew them better, but he didn't want to make a scene so he sat down next to Marty.

Buffy looked thankful that TJ’s appearance meant that she had an excuse to change the topic back to Marty. "Hey TJ," she said. "Please reassure Marty that he's good enough to make the team this year."

TJ nodded. "Yeah, me and some of the other guys from the team played a few games with him over the summer and he's improved a lot."

"Wait," Buffy said as she turned towards Marty. "You never told me that you and TJ hang out without me."

Marty shrugged. "Yeah, it's usually not just the two of us though. I mean, we did have one or two one-on-one games but TJ kept kicking my butt so it wasn't very fun."

Buffy turned towards Cyrus, "Did you know about this?"

Cyrus looked confused. "That our boyfriends have sports time together? Yeah, TJ sent me a few snapchats of Marty completely missing the basket a few times, and then Marty stole his phone and sent me snapchats of TJ missing some as well as revenge, so yeah."

"Hey," TJ interjected. "That's not true. I never miss."

Marty couldn't help but let out a laugh. "Are you sure about that?" He took out his phone. "Because I have one video saved where the ball flies like 5 feet past-"

"Nope!" TJ reached over and pushed down Marty's hand that was holding the phone. "Okay, I admit that I miss once in a while, but no need to show Buffy."

Buffy sent Marty a glance that Jonah could tell meant that she was going to definitely get Marty to show her the video later.

"Do you guys wanna meet up somewhere before the class photo so we can all stand near each other?" Cyrus asked as he pulled a dinosaur lunchbox out of his backpack.

"Yeah," said Buffy. "The photo is being taken in the gym so we can meet by the trophy case outside of it. Do you guys all know where it is?"

Everyone nodded.

"Sounds good," Jonah said right as he noticed a familiar blonde head out of the corner of his eye. On the other side of the cafeteria, Amber and Iris were sitting by themselves. He was glad that they seemed to be good friends again after a few months of things being off between them. He didn't know why they were sitting alone though.

"Hey guys," Jonah said, bringing their small talk to a halt. "Should I text Amber and see if she and Iris want to sit with us?"

Suddenly Cyrus looked a bit uncomfortable. "I don't know Jonah. I love Amber but I wouldn't want her to leave Iris by herself and Iris and I have a... history together that maybe I should finally talk to her about one-on-one before we are in a group together." 

Jonah tried to hide his embarrassment over suggesting something no one else was on board with. "Yeah, I get it." For a second he wondered if maybe he should go sit with Iris and Amber rather than being in his current seat where he was an awkward fifth wheel. His friendship was Amber was still a bit shakey though after their breakup and he didn't want to be the jerk who ditched his friends on the first day of school. Instead, he just spent most of the lunch period sitting there silently as everyone else had conversations that he felt like he had nothing to contribute too. Most of them were about dates or basketball and he couldn't relate to either. Towards the end of the lunch period he pulled out his phone and decided to text Andi:

**Jonah (12:27pm):** Hey Andi :) How's your day going?

* * *

Andi was having a bad day. She had waited for an hour and a half to see the guidance counselor since apparently a few other kids were not having a good first day either and there was a huge line. Then, she had given up and decided to go to her third period class (Algebra. Unfortunately she did have to take some "normal" classes too even though it was an art school), but her name hadn't been on that class list either so she had to go back to the guidance counselor’s office and get at the end of the line again. It was almost lunchtime by the time she finally got called in to talk to the counselor. She felt her phone vibrate right as her name was called, but she ignored it. She had been waiting all day for this meeting and she wasn't going to let herself get distracted. She nervously walked into a small office and was greeted by a short lady with large purple glasses. "Hello, I'm Mrs. Hartman. How can I help you?" 

"Hi, my name is Andi Mack. My name isn't on the attendance sheet for any of my classes."

Mrs. Hartman looked down at her computer and typed for a few seconds before smiling and looking up at Andi. "Sorry about that Andi, but I fixed the problem. You should be good to go."

Andi stood looking at her with her mouth open in shock. "That's it?" She had wasted almost four hours being stressed over a problem that was fixed in under a minute.

Mrs. Hartman nodded. "Your name had been put on hold because you didn't send back the computer policy form that we sent you over the summer. I don't want you to miss any classes though so I overrode it. Tell your parents to send it back ASAP though. Actually, I have more forms here if you need an extra one."

Andi nodded. "Yeah, I should take another one just in case." Andi took the form and left the office still in shock. She had been so excited about every piece of mail that SAVA had sent her over the summer. How did she miss something? She looked down at the form and thought about if it looked familiar but it didn't. Also, she couldn't believe that they had taken her name out of the system for something so small and hadn't told her. Mrs. Hartmen had mentioned the form as an afterthought too. What if she hadn't asked "that's it?" and had just left? Would her name have been taken out of the system again tomorrow or next week? This felt like something that might have happened at Jefferson but not SAVA. SAVA was supposed to be better than Jefferson. It was her dream school, but they had screwed her over in a way that made her stressed all morning and caused her to miss half her classes. She looked at the time on her phone. Her lunch period was almost halfway over. She didn't even know where she would sit if she went to the cafeteria anyway. She hadn't gotten the chance to meet anyone new since she had been in the guidance counselor's office all morning. She was debating on going back to the guidance counselor's waiting room just to have somewhere to sit until her next class when she heard a familiar voice call out to her.

"Hey, Andi! I didn't know you were a student here!" She looked over and saw Walker coming towards her.

* * *

Cyrus glanced down nervously at his apple watch then back up to the hallway.

"Maybe she's already in there," TJ said.

Cyrus shook his head. "We all agreed on meeting at the trophy case and everyone else is here. Why would she go straight to the gym?"

Jonah shrugged. "I don't know, but we're gonna miss the photo if we don't go in now without her. I hear the photographer already telling people where to stand."

Sure enough, Cyrus faintly heard a man say, "Ladies, you're short so you can be in the front. Stand over here towards the left."

Marty rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, I don't want to be the bad boyfriend who ditches his girlfriend, but I spent a lot of extra time on my hair this morning and I don't want to be stuck in the back where no one will see it."

"Ugh," Cyrus said reluctantly. "If she gets mad though then I'm not the one facing her wrath. That's on you guys."

TJ shrugged. "I'm used to Buffy being mad at me."

Cyrus lightly elbowed his side. "That's a lie. She hasn't been like, actually mad at you in over a year."

Marty snorted. "I don't know. She was pretty mad a few weeks ago when TJ spilled his milkshake all over her pants during our double date."

TJ motioned his hands towards Marty. "See Underdog, your best friend is constantly mad at me. It's just something I've come to accept."

Cyrus sighed as they all walked into the gym.

They were among the last of the freshmen to be sorted and were placed towards the middle of the group. Marty was a bit upset since he wanted to be in the front, but none of the other boys really cared. They all had figured that Buffy was somewhere in the crowd of freshmen in the bleachers around them, but just as the last people were being told where to stand, she came running into the gym.

"Sorry!" she called out to the photographer while sounding slightly out of breath. "I had all my books with me and I didn't want to be holding them in the photo, but I couldn't get my locker to open."

The photographer smiled at her. "It's okay. Look, there's a spot right in the front row that you can fill."

Buffy looked down at the giant ketchup stain that was still on her hoodie. "I'm not sure if the front is the best place for me."

The photographer waved her off. "Nonsense, I'm sure you have a great smile."

Buffy looked up at all of her classmates staring back at her from the bleachers. They were all waiting for her. She didn't want to make a scene on the first day so she reluctantly walked into the spot in the front row.

A few seconds later the photographer yelled, "Smile!"

Buffy tried to force a smile.

* * *

Andi and Walker were sitting next to each other on steps outside of the cafeteria. Walker handed her a bag of pretzels. "Here, my mom packed these for me in my lunch because she still doesn't think I'm old enough to make it myself. I'm not a big pretzel guy so you can have them."

Andi smiled. "Thanks. I can't believe that you also missed out on lunch because the stupid line for the guidance counselor was so long."

"Yeah," Walker chuckled. "I'm pretty sure half the school is in that waiting room right now. I still can't believe they put a classroom on my schedule that doesn't exist. You definitely got more screwed over though. I only had one messed up class. All of your classes were messed up though since you weren't on the list for any of them."

Andi sighed as she ripped open the bag of pretzels. "I can't really believe that this happened. In my mind SAVA was perfect, but I haven't even been here for a full school day and it's not living up to my expectations at all."

"Yeah," Walker agreed. "I also thought it was going to be like the greatest school ever. It still could be though. First days of school are always crazy. We should give it a second chance."

Andi nodded as she wiped pretzel crumbs off of her overalls. "I guess. I still can't believe that we both had no idea that each other were going here."

"Yeah... I mean we haven't exactly talked a lot though. I think the last time we texted was like January."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. A lot of things happened really quickly. There was this whole thing where my friends and I got arrested and then my parents got married and-"

"Woah, wait, what?" Walker cut in. "You're gonna have to fill me in on some stuff."

Suddenly the bell signaling the end of lunch rang and they heard the shuffle of students starting to make their way out of the cafeteria. 

Walker stood up and held his hand out to Andi. She grabbed on and let him pull her up onto her feet. "Yeah, we need to catch up. Like, actually catch up. I'm not just saying that to make things less awkward."

"Yeah, maybe tomorrow we can sit together at lunch at an actual lunch table and you can tell me about all the crazy stuff that apparently has happened to you."

"I'm sure that some interesting things have happened to you too since the last time we hung out."

"Yeah." Walker smiled as a herd of students filed out of the cafeteria and pushed past them.

"Where's your next class?" Andi asked.

"Room 114. You?"

"116."

"Walk with me?"

"Sure."

* * *

Buffy spent the entirety of her last class staring at the clock. She just wanted this day to be over. The second that the bell rang, she was out the door. She didn't make it very far though before Marty was behind her.

"Hey," he said with a wave. "I've decided to do my daily boyfriend duty of walking you to your locker."

"You don't actually have to do that," Buffy said in a snappier tone than she had intended. She hadn't wanted to take her frustration out on Marty but he had appeared out of nowhere and she couldn't hold it in.

Marty stopped walking and grabbed her wrist, causing her to stop as well. "Is everything okay?"

Buffy sighed. She didn’t really want to talk about it so she quickly thought of a different reason of why she looked upset. "Why didn't you send me snapchats of you and TJ hanging out like TJ sent to Cyrus?"

Marty looked a bit taken aback. "Sorry. I just thought-I mean, just, TJ and Cyrus like never stop snapchatting or texting each other, like ever, and I didn't think we were that kind of couple. We can be! But you know that I don't really have that much data so if we snapchat a lot then it will run out in like two days." He paused for a second. "That isn't the real reason why you're mad though, is it?"

Buffy shook her head. 

"You know that you can talk to me, right? Is it because of the photo?"

Buffy sighed. "Yes, but I know it's a dumb reason to be upset. We don't have to talk about it. I'm sure that I'll be over it by tomorrow."

"Do you wanna talk about it though?"

"No, yes, I don't know. It's just that sometimes I feel like I have to prove that I like being girly. That sounds so dumb and I know it's not a huge problem, but I like being an athlete and I also like being girly. I should be able to be both at the same time but for some reason, it's hard for people to see that I can be girly and tough simultaneously. Like, I feel like I always get a few weird stares on days when I do full makeup and wear a dress and it makes me feel uncomfortable. Things could have been different in high school though if people knew me right away as someone who dresses girly before they saw me kick butt during basketball season. Now that I'm gonna be in front on the first page of the yearbook dressed like a slob though, it's gonna be harder to convince people that I can be girly and pretty too."

Marty grabbed her hands. "I think you look pretty right now, and you always look girly because you're a girl, but like not in a bad way. I mean that I think you look pretty even when you're playing basketball. I'm sorry. I don't know what I'm saying, but I've always seen you as a pretty girl who can also kick butt and I know that other people will see you that way too. If they don't though then it doesn't matter."

Buffy smiled. "Thanks, Marty. I'm still upset but that makes me feel a bit bett-"

"UGH!" Marty and Buffy turn around to see who let out the sudden noise behind them. It was Cyrus. "Did you guys hear?" he asked.

"Hear what?"

"The dumb photographer didn't focus the camera right so now we have to retake our photos! I cannot believe this. I'm not a photographer but creating short films is practically the same thing and the first thing I do when I start filming a scene is check the focus because-"

"Cyrus," Buffy cut him off. "It's okay."

Cyrus sighed. "I know but TJ and I were both wearing green today and I thought it was cute that we were matching. I guess I could tell him to wear the same thing next week when the photographer comes back but it was cuter when I knew that we had matched accidentally."

Buffy rolled her eyes but Marty grinned.

"We could match too," he said. "You can wear that red dress you wore when we went to the mall last week and I can wear my red flannel."

Buffy scoffed and motioned between Marty and Cyrus. "You two are such hopeless romantics."

Cyrus smiled. "I know, right? Marty, we should plan more elaborate double dates."

"Yes! I was thinking that we should all go rollerblading sometime."

Cyrus's smile faltered. "Okay, maybe something else that doesn't require so much coordination, but you're on the right track."

Buffy grabbed both boys by the arm and started pulling them towards the door. "Guys, can we plan this later? I don't know about you, but my first day of high school was exhausting. I'm ready to go home and take a nap."

"Yeah, I'm with ya," Cyrus said as he pulled out his phone. "You guys go ahead though. I'm gonna text TJ. We were supposed to meet up before we left but I don't know where he is."

Marty and Buffy walked on without him as he sent a text to TJ:

**Cyrus (3:03pm): **Hey, where are you?

He stared at his phone waiting for a reply for a few seconds before locking it and continuing to walk towards the door. TJ usually responded to his texts almost instantly, but maybe his phone had died or something. Right as he was about to leave the building though, he got a text:

**Teej <3 (3:06pm):** Hey, sorry

**Teej <3 (3:06pm):** I know you wanted to talk for a bit after school but I had to talk to my math teacher

**Teej <3 (3:06pm)**: I wanted to change class periods but I don't think I’ll be able to

**Teej <3 (3:06pm): **You won’t believe who is in my class   


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Idk if every episode is gonna be this long because if they are then this whole thing is gonna be 140k words and the most I've ever written for one piece is 12k so we'll see. According to wordcounter.net though the reading time for this chapter is 25 minutes and that's about the time that it takes to watch one episode of the show and I like that since it feels more like a real episode.
> 
> I'm trying to keep this as canon-compliant as possible but finding full episodes for the show to rewatch and make sure everything is right is kinda hard so sorry if something doesn't add up. Also, I'm probably gonna take a few creative liberties since the show didn't give us some important info. Like Marty and Amber's full names, so I'm just gonna assume "Marty" is a nickname for Martin but who knows. His Wikipedia page doesn't say. Also, for the sake of this fic I'm saying that the S3 finale took place around late May/early June even though they were in winter coats.
> 
> Also, this first episode switched between characters a lot so sorry if that was confusing. It was because this first episode was setting a lot up for future ones, but most episodes will have a main plot that focuses on only one or a few characters then maybe a side plot or two. Also, pretty much every character in the GHC and dumb*ss trio (plus Amber) will have an episode where they are the main plot. 
> 
> Expect updates every weekend. I'll try to post on Fridays so it can kinda feel like a new episode of the show is coming out, but I'm a college student who has a VERY busy schedule so a lot of this will probably be written on Saturdays at 3am. 
> 
> One last thing, I'm going to be utilizing a lot of headcanons that I saw on Twitter or Tumblr that I liked but I don't think there is a way to figure out who came up with all of them so this is just a blanket shout out to everyone who came up with the ones that I include.


	2. Reconnections and Reflections

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Episode Synopsis: Will Andi’s second day at SAVA be less stressful than her first? TJ and Cyrus each have to decide if they want to reconnect with someone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, sorry this is a week late but life hit me like a bus last weekend. Also a small fyi: This episode takes place the day after the first one which isn't going to be how most of them are. Most episodes will be a few days or weeks apart and will cover pretty much the entire school year.

Yesterday afternoon, TJ had actually been a bit excited for his math class. He hadn’t been as excited for the class as he had been for his gym and history classes, but he definitely hadn’t been feeling the dread that he had gotten every previous year when he had imagined walking into a math classroom. The difference was that this year he was in a special class meant for students who needed a less conventional teaching style in order to excel. In the past, TJ would have rather dropped out of school then have gone to a class that was designed for kids with learning disabilities. He had come a long way in the past year though, and now he knew that just because he learned differently than other students when it came to math, it didn’t mean that he was dumb. Every ounce of hope that he had about his new math class had come tumbling down when he walked into the room and saw his ex-best friend, Reed, scrolling through his phone in the back of the classroom. TJ had tried to sneak past Reed and sat in the front row on the other side of the classroom, but of course, Reed saw him the second that their teacher called TJ’s name during attendance. (Not his full name, thankfully. His mom had already called the high school to make sure that all the attendance sheets said just “TJ”). TJ tried to concentrate during class. It was the first math class he had been in where he should have actually been able to understand what was happening without a tutor, but all he could focus on was the feeling of Reed’s gaze on the back of his head. After the class had ended, he had gone up to his teacher to try and switch into a different class period, but it was the only class that the school offered for freshmen that was specifically designed to help him, and the only time it was taught was ninth period. As he left the class, he started texting Cyrus—fully prepared to rant about his current situation—but then he bumped into someone as he was walking out of the classroom door. He had looked up and seen Reed staring back at him.

“Hey, long time no see,” he had said to TJ, and he had looked_ sad _ and _defeated _in a way that TJ had never seen him before. Every since he had meet Reed at motocross camp when they were ten, he had never seen Reed at a moment where he wasn’t emitting an aura of cockiness and confidence. Until now. 

TJ had walked away without saying anything. He started to continue to text Cyrus, but he stopped himself before revealing who in his math class had upset him. Suddenly he couldn’t even remember why he had been so freaked out about seeing Reed. Yeah, there had been the whole thing with the gun, and he _ wasn’t _ going to forget _ that_. He didn’t think that he and Reed could ever be as close as they were before, but he also knew that Reed had gone through 100 hours of community service. The Reed he had known had never helped anyone before, but the Reed he had just seen was someone who had put in over four entire days worth of service to his community. Yeah, it wasn’t willingly, but it still had to count for something, right? TJ couldn’t get the look on Reed’s face out of his mind. Should he keep ignoring Reed, or should he try to be friendly? What would Cyrus say if he started talking to Reed again? What would Andi and Buffy say? TJ didn’t know what to do.

* * *

Jonah was on his way to his first period American History class when he turned a corner and almost smacked right into another person because he was too busy scrolling through #frisbeefriends on Twitter.

“Hey- oh, hi Jonah,” The person he almost crashed into said. He looked up and saw that it was Amber.

“Oh, hey sorry about that,” he said.

They stared at each other for an awkward few seconds, neither knowing exactly what to say.

“How was your first day?” Amber asked.

“Oh, yeah, it was cool. I mean lunch was a little awkward but- I mean, it was fine. How was your first day?”

Amber shrugged. “My lunch was kinda awkward too. It was only me and Iris and we ran out of things to talk about halfway through the period. We both didn’t do a whole lot this summer except work. Me at the spoon and her at the aquarium.”

“Shadyside aquarium hires teenagers?” Jonah asked as he attempted to casually lean against a row of lockers.

“Yeah, she was just in the gift shop. She didn’t get to feed sea turtles or swim with sharks or anything.”

“Oh. That’s still cool though.”

“Yeah.” Amber said before quietly adding, “How’s the new apartment?”

“Oh! It’s great. I got to pick out a new bedspread and posters since all of my old ones were from the beginning of middle school and I grew out of them. My old bedspread was covered in the sunglasses emoji so it was definitely time for a change.”

Amber smiled. “Yeah, is that why you never let me in your room when I came over the first time we dated?”

Jonah shrugged. “Kinda, but mostly because I thought my mom would be mad if I brought my girlfriend into my room.”

At the beginning of the summer, bringing up their past romantic relationship would have made things awkward, but hanging out as a group with the Good Hair Crew as a buffer for the awkwardness over the summer had made things less tense between them.

“I’m happy that we’re friends now,” Amber said.

Jonah smiled. “Yeah, me too.” Then, before he could think about what he was saying, he added, “We should sit together at lunch.”

“Oh, yeah, okay. Do you have sixth-period lunch too? I didn’t see you? Who did you sit with?”

“Buffy, Cyrus, Marty, and TJ. Marty and Buffy were the ones who grabbed the table. It was kinda hidden behind the vending machines because I think Marty wanted to be close to the one with the energy drinks.”

“I don’t really know TJ and Marty that well...”

“I just started hanging out with them this summer. They’re cool.”

“Didn’t you used to hate T-” She was interrupted by the first-period bell. “Oh my gosh, we've been standing here talking so long that I forgot that I was going to class. I’ll see you at lunch?” she said as she started walking away from Jonah.

“Yeah, see ya,” he yelled at her as he walked the other way.

The second that he walked into his history class, he remembered that Cyrus hadn’t wanted him to invite Amber and Iris to sit with them at lunch. 

* * *

Andi had made Bex sign the computer policy form the second that she had gotten into her car yesterday, and had quadruple checked that it was signed before handing it in to Mrs. Hartman that morning. She had almost cried with relief when she had heard her name called during attendance during her first-period class. Although she was relieved that the whole attendance mess was finally over, she was now a day behind in her classes. That fact was made very apparent when she walked into her 3D art class and saw that every other student had already begun their first project—a giant paper mache sculpture of the first letter of their name. Many students seemed to already be a few steps in. They had cut out two copies of their letters and had glued dixie cups in-between them to make a three-dimensional sculpture. Andi didn’t even have a seat yet. Luckily there was an open one next to a girl in the back of the classroom. Andi immediately recognized the girl as a new student she had briefly seen yesterday due to her bright yellow crocs.

“Hi,” Andi said to her. “Is this seat open?”

“Yep,” the girl said as she moved her giant ‘Q’ sculpture aside to give Andi more room.

“I’m Andi. It’s nice to meet you.”

“I’m Quinn. It’s nice to meet you too. You’re probably gonna have a way easier time with your project. ‘A’s are made up of all straight lines, but it took me forever yesterday to cut out a perfect circle for my ‘Q’,” she said as she waved her hand towards her slightly imperfect cardboard circles.

A short man who Andi assumed was her teacher came up and started talking to her, “Hello, I’m Mr. Davidson. You weren’t in class yesterday, were you?”

Andi shook her head. “No, I had a problem with my name not showing up on attendance. It’s all fixed though.”

“No worries. I’m glad you got it all figured out. So, our first project is called the Letter Project. First-”

“Mr. Davidson. I need help,” a student across the room interrupted. Mr. Davidson turned around and saw the raised hands of half a dozen different students who needed assistance.

“I can help Andi get started so you can go help other students,” Quinn told him.

He looked extremely relieved. “Yes, thank you, Quinn. Remind me to give you an extra credit point after you turn your project in.” He then walked away towards the swarm of confused students awaiting his help. 

Quinn looked at Andi. “Okay, so first you need cardboard.” She looked up and frowned. “It was by the door yesterday... but you missed what I’m going to call the ‘cardboard massacre of 2019’, and I guess it was all used. Everyone thought they were skilled enough to just start cutting without sketching out their letters first and the room was full of ugly crooked letters.” She reached over to her pile of materials and grabbed a piece of barely used cardboard and handed it to Andi. “Here, I used this for the little tail in my ‘Q’ so there’s a lot left.”

“Thanks,” Andi said. “By the way, I like your crocs.”

Quinn smiled. “Thanks. I like your dress. Where did you get it?”

Andi looked down at her dress that was covered in sunflowers. “I think I just got it at the department store in the mall. They actually have some really cute clothes if you look hard enough.”

“I know right! Last spring I found this super cute green sweater with zebras on it that was only like ten dollars. I was so excited. It perfectly matched a zebra headband I already owned”

“I think I have the same sweater!” Andi said excitedly. “I also have a headband that it matches really well.”

Andi and Quinn spent the rest of the period talking about fashion and helping each other with their giant letters. By the end of the period, Andi had caught up with the rest of the class. Her second day of SAVA was already definitely going better than her first.

* * *

Cyrus had been having a very enjoyable time learning about lab safety in his science class when he had gotten a text from Jonah that said:

**JB (8:23am): **Hey Cyrus, uh…… I might have accidentally but also not so accidentally invited Amber and Iris to sit with us at lunch so maybe you should talk to Iris about… ya know… before then. I’m really sorry. Like, really really sorry. 

Cyrus had sent four text messages to Jonah since then asking him if he was serious and had only gotten a “yeah, my bad” in response. Now, he was sitting in the library during his third-period study hall staring at Iris, who happened to also be in the library. She was sitting alone, reading what looked to be a young adult fiction book about two robots in love. She wasn’t doing schoolwork. Neither was he, since it was only the second day of school. Barely anyone else was in the library. Now was the perfect time to talk to her. So why wasn’t he getting up to talk to her? All he had to do was go up to her and say, “Hey, sorry that I totally freaked out after we kissed and ran out of your house, and I know that I said we could be friends at the renaissance fair but then never spoke to you again. Sorry if you think I'm a jerk for avoiding you, but I was having a big gay crisis. That’s mostly resolved though so can we be friends again?” He couldn’t just straight up say that though, right? Or could he? He wished that there was a handbook on how to tell your ex-girlfriend that the reason you dumped her is that you don’t like girls. Maybe there was one, or maybe there was at least a YouTube video he could watch. He was about to do a google search for exactly that when he heard someone clear their throat. He looked up to see that Iris had walked over to him.

“Hi,” she said with a tiny wave.

“Hi.”

“What were you typing?” she asked.

Cyrus slammed his laptop shut. “Uh, nothing.”

Iris frowned slightly and started to step back. “Oh, uh, sorry for asking.”

Cyrus shot up out of his seat. “No, don’t be sorry. It’s just that- ugh, sorry.”

Iris’s frown softened into a smile. “It’s okay. I know that we haven’t talked in a while. I shouldn’t have intruded like that. I didn’t know what else to say, but I wanted to talk to you.”

Cyrus let out a sigh. “Yeah, I wanted to talk to you too. Wanna sit down?” he asked as he sat back in his chair and moved his bag out of the way of the seat across from him. 

"How have you been?" Iris asked.

"Good, you?"

"Pretty good. I got to work at the aquarium over the summer. That was pretty fun."

"Really?" Cyrus's entire body lit up. "Did you work in the gift shop? Please tell me that you got to work in the gift shop. Did they have tiny figurines of whales? I love those."

"Yes, I worked in the gift shop!" Iris said as she started bouncing up and down. "Oh my gosh. Yes, there were tiny whales. Also, we got these cool diagrams of prehistoric ocean life in July and I kept thinking about how you would love them."

Cyrus's stomach churned. "You thought of me?"

"Yeah, sorry. Is that weird?" Iris asked nervously as she drummed her fingers on the table. "Look, Cyrus," she let out a sigh. "I know that you didn't like me the way that I liked you, and I'm sorry that made you so uncomfortable that you've been avoiding me-"

"No," Cyrus started waving around his arms. "Iris, it's fine. I'm glad you think about me. You shouldn't feel weird about that. I think about you too." He clasped his hands together in order to try and make them stop flailing and looked down at the table. "Look, I just.... ugh." He brought his eyes back to meet hers. "You're right I guess. I didn't like you the way you liked me, but I did like you. I liked you a lot... but as a friend. I think of you sometimes too because you were a great friend. I loved talking to you. I just didn't really like the other stuff we did like the hand holding and kissing..."

"Oh." Iris grabbed a piece of her hair and started twirling it nervously. 

"Yeah, I'm sorry. You just weren't... my type, and I didn't know how to be around you without feeling weird about that-"

"It's okay Cyrus," she self-consciously looked down and tucked the hair back behind her ear.

Cyrus's eyes widened. "No, stop. Don't feel bad about yourself! It wasn't because of you. You're super pretty, and holding your hand was nice. You have nice hands, but it just wasn't... right. For me, at least." 

"Oh…" Iris continued to look down at the table for a few seconds before her head suddenly shot up in realization. "OH! Wait. Oh my gosh, Cyrus. Are you... I mean... sorry, wait, that's personal, but-"

"Yeah," he said with a smile. "I'm gay."

Iris smiled back. "Thanks for telling me."

"Yeah, it used to be hard to tell people, but it's getting easier I guess." He sighed. "I'm still sorry for saying we could be friends but then never talking to you again."

"You weren't ready to tell me. It's okay. I understand."

"I should have at least posted on your Facebook wall on your birthday or something instead of completely avoiding you," Cyrus said with a cringe. 

Iris laughed. "It's okay, Cyrus."

Cyrus shook his head. "You don't understand. I post on everyone's wall for their birthday. I even said 'Happy Birthday' to my boyfriend's mom a month ago on her wall and I was like 'Oh god was that weird. She doesn't even use Facebook a lot'. He told me it was okay though-"

"Wait, you have a boyfriend?"

"Yeah," Cyrus said with a dreamy smile.

"Does holding his hand feel right?"

"Yeah, it really does."

"I'm happy for you,” Iris said as she reached out and gave his wrist a squeeze.

"Thanks."

"So... do you wanna hear about the other new stuff we got in the gift shop over the summer?"

"Yes! Is that even a question?"

* * *

Andi put her tray of food down on the lunch table and sat in a seat next to Walker. “Okay, so, the food definitely already looks better than the school lunches I had in middle school.” 

Walker laughed. He pointed at the piece of pizza on her tray. “Yeah, that actually kinda looks good. Better than what I brought.” He motioned down towards a smushed peanut butter and jelly sandwich that was sitting in front of him.

Andi giggled. “What happened to your sandwich? Did you sit on it?”

Walker looked away from her sheepishly. “Uh, yeah. I put my bag on my chair to save my seat in painting class. Then I went to get supplies and I totally forgot that I had left it there. When I sat back down, I sat directly on top of my lunch.”

“I’m guessing that painting class is also the reason why you look like you’re transforming into Shrek?” she asked as she motioned towards his arms which were covered in green paint.

“Yep.”

“What are you painting that requires that much green?”

“A sea turtle.”

“Really, that’s so cool. I can’t wait to see it when it’s done.” 

“Thanks. I’m really excited about it. After I’m done with the painting part, I’m going to use plastic trash that can’t be recycled like straws and soap dispenser pumps to create the design on the shell. Then hopefully it will be displayed at an environmental conference next month.”

“Wow, I wish I thought of something as cool as that,” Andi said as she attempted to eat her pizza, but a big glob of cheese dripped off of the slice and on to the table the second she tried to bite it.

Walker stared at the glob of cheese. “Well… at least that means it’s real cheese, right?”

Andi attempted to take another bite and ended up being much more successful. She chewed for a few seconds. “I think so. It tastes like real cheese.”

“Are you having a better day than yesterday?” Walker asked.

Andi nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, all my classes were really interesting, my teachers were super nice, I made a new friend, and my school lunch is actually edible. Maybe SAVA really is the best school ever.”

“Yeah,” Walker said. “I had a great day too. I think my favorite part about SAVA doesn’t really actually have anything to do with the school itself, but the people who go here. At my old school, I felt like there was more support for kids who were passionate about math or science then support for my passion for art. Yeah, science and math are important, but art is too. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life, and I’m glad that everyone else here feels the same way and that we can all support each other.” 

“Yeah, I feel like everyone feels free to express themselves however they want creatively, and that’s so cool. Like, the friend I made this morning, Quinn, was wearing yellow crocs and she looked great in them.”

“Cool. I also own crocs,” Walker said.

“Really?”

He nodded. “Yeah, they’re bright orange.”

“Okay, I have crocs too,” Andi admitted. “They’re hot pink.”

“Us and Quinn should start a neon croc squad.”

“Yes, on Wednesdays we wear crocs.”

* * *

TJ was on his way to history class when he saw Cyrus walking out of the library. He looked at the time on his phone. He still had four minutes to get to a classroom that was only a few feet away, and Cyrus looked really happy. Hopefully, that was a good sign that we wouldn’t be too mad about TJ not texting him back yesterday.

TJ started to walk towards him. “Hey, Cyr-”

“Explain,” Cyrus interrupted as he crossed his arms over his chest.

TJ looked down and rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, uh, yeah. Sorry.”

“I thought we agreed that communication is important, so why have you been ignoring me?”

TJ sighed. “I didn’t want to stop texting you but I needed some time to think things out because I was confused.”

“About?”

“Remember when I told you that I wanted to switch out of my math class because of someone who’s in it with me?”

“Yes.” 

“It’s Reed.”

Cyrus let his arms fall to his sides. “Oh.”

TJ looked around then pulled Cyrus to a more secluded part of the hallway. He took a deep breath. "I know that I shouldn’t talk to him and I won’t, but every time I see him all these memories and emotions start flooding back because… he's the first person who... he figured out... I'm pretty sure that he knew that I liked you... and he didn't make a big deal out of it. I was really nervous the entire morning before you got to the bike park and he told me 'relax dude we'll make you seem cool' and obviously that didn't go well, but at the time I was so relieved that he wanted to help me impress you," he took a deep breath, "but thinking about this makes me realize that if he hadn't brought that stupid gun that maybe I could have talked to him about stuff. Then again, maybe he deserves a second chance because you gave me one, and when I looked into his eyes I could, I don't know, feel that maybe he's changed like I did. It's just all so confusing, and I know you don't want me to talk to him-"

"I think you should talk to him."

TJ’s eyes widened. "What?"

Cyrus shrugged. "Yeah. You clearly have a lot of unsettled emotions when it comes to your relationship with him and I think you should talk to him about it."

"Are you sure?"

Cyrus nodded then reached out and grabbed TJ’s hand."Yeah, I know it's a difficult situation but I put off talking to Iris for like two years, and I always freaked out a bit whenever I saw her because I had all these weird unresolved feelings when it came to her. But, I just talked to her in the library for the first time since I ended things with her and now I feel a lot better. She's probably gonna eat with us at lunch and instead of feeling nervous to be around her, instead, I feel happy that I’m gonna see someone that maybe I’m not quite friends with but a least at this point we’re friendly. I'm not saying that you should invite Reed to sit with us, but I think that you'll feel a lot better in math if you can turn the unresolved tension between you two into a friendlyish relationship."

TJ nervously bit his lip. "But Andi and Buffy-"

"If they get upset that you talked to Reed, I won't let them stop me from talking to you again. Their bodyguarding made everything a bigger mess then it needed to be and I think they know that. Like I always say, communication is key. Which is why I was so upset that you ignored my texts last night, but at least we're talking now in person and getting things out, which is good. Anyway, you said you don't want to be fully friends with him again so you probably won't be hanging out outside of school, right? It's not like he can do anything dangerous while in your math class... well hopefully he won't. Especially since you said he seems changed after his community service... sorry I'm rambling. Anyway, I don't think they'll get mad at you for just becoming friendly enough with him that you can concentrate in math class. We all have become very invested in you getting good math grades." He smiled. 

TJ laughed. "Yeah, I remember how surprised I was last spring when Buffy started texting me encouragement for my math quizzes, but now I don't think I could take a quiz without her."

"See?"

"I should probably talk to Reed before we have math together. I think that he has study hall when we have lunch so I can probably find him and talk to him for a few minutes then. Do you care if I’m a few minutes late to lunch?"

"No… but maybe make sure you talk to him in a busy hallway though so there are witnesses."

TJ rolled his eyes. "I thought you said that you don't think he's dangerous anymore."

"I know. I trust your judgment that he's changed.” He squeezed TJ’s hand. “I'll save you a seat. You don't think the conversation is gonna talk long right?"

"I don't know. I don't even know what to say."

"Well, saying 'hi' to Iris was a good start for me."

"Okay, I'll say 'hi' to him."

* * *

TJ sent a text to Reed right before fifth period began:

**TJ (11:03am):** Hey, can we meet up somewhere to talk real quick before 6th period?

Halfway through class, he got a text back:

**Reed (11:26am):** Yeah, I guess? I’ll meet you at your locker. What number is it?

TJ groaned. It was annoying sometimes how often numbers showed up in everyday life. He knew exactly where his locker was, but he had no idea what the number was. He had a piece of paper with the number written on it, but the lockers were assigned in alphabetical order so he had just gone to the one between Isaac King and Maya Kirkwood. The same thing happened with his locker combination every year. He would struggle to get the right numbers for a week or two before he would memorize the exact spot he had to turn it to each time without even bothering to try and read the numbers anymore. Luckily, now that he knew and accepted that he had dyscalculia, his mom had gotten him a directional lock that he could unlock by sliding a button on the lock in a pattern of ups, downs, lefts, and rights. Although that problem was solved, it still didn’t solve the problem that he didn’t trust himself to tell Reed what his correct locker number was. Especially since Reed was in his same math class, and as far as he knew Reed had the same problem. He tried to discreetly shuffle through his already messy bag without disturbing his class until he found the paper with the locker number. He then took a photo of it and sent it to a group chat titled “TJ’s Number Translators” that consisted of Cyrus, Buffy, and Jonah. At the beginning of the summer, he had started texting Cyrus photos of numbers that he didn’t have the time or resources to figure out himself. Like checks for The Spoon, scores of basketball games he was watching on TV, and once an entire bingo card when he had gone to visit his grandparents at their senior living home and had somehow been dragged into playing bingo with a room of people who were all over 80. Cyrus wasn’t always free to text him straight back every time he needed help though, so he had decided to start a group chat with Buffy and Jonah in it as well since they already knew about his dyscalculia. Less than a minute later he got a reply from Buffy:

**Buffy (11:28am): **One two eight six

**Buffy (11:28am): **Also, didn’t I tell you and Cyrus to not text each other in class

**TJ (11:28am): **Yeah but this is a group chat so it doesn’t count

**Buffy (11:29am): **A group chat that includes Cyrus

**Cyrus (11:29am): **Buffy, I’m in English and we’re just learning about The Great Gatsby for the 80th time. I swear that English teachers don’t realize that any other books exist. 

**Jonah (11:29am):** I’m in science and I just spilled water everywhere because my phone was in my pocket and you all were making it vibrate like crazy. Thanks.

**Buffy (11:29am): **Shhh. Everyone pay attention to your class.

**Cyrus (11:30am): **Yes, captain.

**TJ (11:30am):** Yes, captain.

**Jonah (11:30am):** Yes, captain.

**Buffy (11:30am): **I h8 you all. I need more female friends.

TJ copied Buffy’s text and sent it to Reed:

**TJ (11:30am): **One two eight six

**Reed (11:31am):** Cool, thanks for writing it out.

TJ put away his phone and tried to pay attention to his class. He was too busy trying to figure out what exactly he was going to say to Reed to concentrate though. 

Finally, a bit over twenty minutes later, the bell rang and TJ and headed over towards his locker. When he turned the corner, he saw that Reed was already there, leaning against the locker adjacent to his. 

“Hi,” TJ said as casually as he could as he walked up to him.

Reed stood up straight. “Look, dude. You don’t gotta warn me not to tell anyone that you’re in a special math class. It’s cool.”

“Oh, thanks, but I wasn’t really worried about that.” It was true. With all the thoughts he had been thinking about Reed lately, wondering if Reed was gonna tell anyone about his learning disability wasn’t one of them. 

Reed looked at him confused. “Why did you wanna talk then?”

TJ shrugged. “I don’t want to spend every math class having this awkward tension between us since our friendship ended so abruptly. I guess I thought that maybe if we talked for a bit then that would clear the air or whatever.”

Reed nodded. “Yeah, okay. Look, I’m not mad that you reported me to the cops.”

TJ couldn’t stop himself from visibly recoiling in shock. “Really?”

Reed sighed. “Yeah, I was really mad at first, but as time passed, I realized that I shouldn’t be. I mean, I’m sure it took a lot of guts to go to the police station by yourself, especially since you knew it would ruin our friendship. I see now that I did do something stupid and dangerous, and you were just trying to protect me. You were a good friend for that… even though ironically that was what ended our friendship. Also, community service sucked at first, but one day I had to help set up a science fair and I realized how cool a lot of the projects were. Like, this one kid had a project where he used nitrogen triiodide to make a little explosion that made a purple dust cloud. It was sick. After the fair, I talked to him and he told me about a chemistry camp he was going to where they do chemical reactions with explosions and stuff all the time, but safe explosions, ya know? I know it sounds kinda lame, but I ended up going and I really liked it and I made a lot of friends who I wouldn’t have met otherwise, so uh, thanks I guess.”

TJ smiled. “I don’t think that sounds lame. I think that sounds really cool actually. So… are we cool?”

Reed grinned. “Yeah, we’re cool.”

“Alright, I gotta get to lunch, but I’ll see you in class I guess.”

TJ started to walk away, but then Reed called out to him. “Hey, did you ever fix things with that Cyrus kid? Sorry that I scared him off.”

TJ turned around and smiled. “Yeah, Cyrus and I are good.”

* * *

“I see that you’re wearing a fancy date outfit today,” Marty said as he walked up beside Buffy on the way to the cafeteria. She was wearing a green dress and a denim jacket.

“Are you seriously going to keep categorizing all my outfits based on the types of dates I would wear them too?” 

“Yep.” Marty said with a pop on the ‘p’.

Buffy smirked. “Okay, what if I was wearing my gym clothes.”

“You could wear those to a marathon date.”

Buffy shook her head. “Nope, no way I’m running another marathon. At least, no without proper stretching and training beforehand.”

“Okay, well you could also wear them if we went on a date to shoot hoops in the park, or if we went to the gym, or if you were in gym class and I kidnapped you and we skipped school to go to the movies.”

Buffy raised her eyebrow. “Would you actually do that?”

Marty laughed. “No. Going to the movies during the day sucks anyway. I always feel so weird if I walk outside after a movie and it’s still light out.”

“Good. Okay, hmm,” She thought for a second. “What if I was wearing a clown costume then?”

“You could wear that if we went on a date to the circus.”

“Why would I wear a full clown costume just to _ watch _a circus?” 

Marty shrugged. “Maybe you're really passionate about clowns. People dress up in full costumes when they go to see superhero movies and stuff. I think that should be accepted for all types of entertainment and people should be able to dress as clowns when they go to see clowns at the circus.”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Please remind me why I’m dating you again.”

Marty pretended to look shocked. “I thought that intellectually stimulating conversations like this were why you liked hanging out with me.” 

“I can’t believe that you even know what the word ‘stimulating’ means.”

Buffy and Marty entered the cafeteria, and Buffy was immediately surprised to see that Jonah was sitting at their table with Amber and Iris.

“I thought that Cyrus told Jonah not to invite them over yesterday,” she whispered to Marty.

Marty shrugged. “Yeah, I’m not fully filled in on what happened with Cyrus and Iris but I got the vibe it wasn’t great.”

“They didn’t get into a big fight or anything. They just dated and it ended awkwardly.”

“Wait, what? But Cyrus is…”

Buffy nodded. “Yeah, that’s why they broke up, but… Iris doesn’t know that.”

“Hey, guys,” Jonah said to them as they sat down at the table.

Buffy was trying to think of a subtle way to ask Jonah why Amber and Iris were at their table when Cyrus showed up, and to Buffy’s surprise, sat right next to Iris.

“You guys would never believe what happened in my English class,” Cyrus said excitedly.

Both Buffy and Marty awkwardly glanced back and forth between him and Iris, but Jonah didn’t seem to notice and asked, “What?”

“A guy who was sitting in the back of the class fell asleep. My teacher noticed and instead of waking him up, she had us all leave the room five minutes early. Then she turned off the lights, shut the blinds, and changed the digital clock on her desk to say 9pm. We sat in the hallway for a few minutes and then suddenly the kid burst out of the room looking like a panicked mess because he thought that he had slept through the entire school day.”

Jonah, Amber, and Iris laughed. Marty let out an awkward chuckle, but Buffy still couldn’t wipe the shock off her face. She hadn’t seen Cyrus and Iris even be in the same room with each other for two years and now suddenly they were friends. When did that happen?

Just then, TJ came up to their table and sat across from Cyrus. Buffy thought he would also be surprised to see Cyrus and Iris together, but he didn’t seem shocked at all.

“Did you talk to him?” Cyrus asked.

That just made Buffy even more confused. Talk to who? What was happening? Did she somehow teleport to a different universe? At least Marty also looked confused, but he always looked at least a little bit confused at all times so that wasn’t very reassuring. Even Jonah looked like he knew what was happening more than she did.

TJ nodded. “Yeah, it went well. I don’t know how much we’re gonna talk to each other in the future, but I think that I resolved the awkwardness enough that at least I can sit in the same class as him without feeling nervous.”

“Who are you talking about?” Jonah asked. Okay, that gave Buffy a bit of a sense of relief. At least Jonah was also confused about this. 

TJ quickly glanced at Buffy then Cyrus then back to Jonah. “Uh… this guy Reed that I used to be friends with.”

“Wait,” Jonah said. “Is he the guy who thought it would be cool to play with his dad’s gun?”

TJ flinched. “Yeah,” he nervously looked at Buffy. “We aren’t friends anymore though. I promise. I’m just stuck in the same math class as him and the tension between us was making it even harder for me to concentrate. Also, we talked things out and he doesn’t do stuff like that anymore. He’s actually kinda a science geek now.”

“Seriously?” Cyrus asked.

“Yeah,” TJ said still looking at Buffy like he was waiting for her to say something. 

“You don’t have to worry about me interfering this time, TJ. I realize that Andi and I weren’t helping the situation at all last time by blocking off communication. I trust your judgment.”

TJ exhaled. “Cool.”

Everyone sat in silence for a few seconds before Cyrus said, “So, uh, I saw that they have baby taters on the lunch menu for Friday. Well, they called them tater tots, which is wrong, but do you guys think they’ll be as good as The Spoon’s?”

Marty shook his head. “No way man, I’m sure their gonna be frozen.”

“The Spoon uses frozen baby taters,” Amber said.

“WHAT???” Cyrus asked, looking like someone had just told him the worst news he had ever heard in his life.

Amber laughed. “Yeah, did you think we cut the potatoes and everything ourselves? I’m not being paid enough to do that.”

“You’re not even a chef though. You’re a waitress,” Iris said.

Amber shrugged. “I’m sure that the chef isn’t being paid enough either.” She looked to Cyrus, “Sorry that I told you. I guess that ignorance is bliss or whatever.”

Cyrus sighed. “It’s okay. I’ll just have to learn to accept that my entire life has been a lie. ”

“Wait,” Jonah said. “Are the milkshakes frozen too?”

Amber rolled her eyes. “Yes, they’re milkshakes. If they weren’t frozen then they would melt.”

“Oh, right. I guess that’s good then.”

* * *

Andi was nervous. As soon as she had walked into her eighth-period class, she had been told that the guidance counselor wanted her. She thought that her problem had been fixed when she handed in the form that morning. Was there another problem? She nervously walked into Mrs. Hartman's office. Mrs. Hartman looked up from a paper she was reading and smiled.

"Hi, Andi. Why don't you sit down."

Andi sat down on one of the extremely soft chairs in front of Mrs. Hartman, but instead of relaxing into it, her body remained tense.

"Is there another problem?" she asked as she fidgeted with one of the bracelets she was wearing.

"Oh, no honey. Relax. I just wanted to check in with you since you seemed very stressed yesterday. I just wanted to make sure that you had a better time today."

Andi let herself relax into the chair. "Yeah. Today was good."

"Good, good. Do you like all your classmates and teachers?"

"Yeah," Andi smiled. "I've already made a few friends. Well, I knew this guy, Walker, from before but we had lost touch for a while. It's been nice reconnecting with him though. I also met a new girl named Quinn. She's really nice."

"That's great." Mrs. Hartman said as she quickly glanced down at some of her notes. "If everything with you is good then I guess we're done here. I just wanted this to be a quick check-in. If you have any problems in the future though please come to me right away."

"Okay, thank you. I will."

Andi couldn't stop smiling as she walked back to her class. She stopped for a second and stared at the giant yellow "SAVA" sculpture in the main hallway. She really loved this school.

* * *

TJ walked into his math class and sat at the same desk that he had sat at yesterday. As he pulled his notebook out of his bag, he turned his head towards the back corner of the class where Reed sat. He and Reed met eyes. It wasn’t awkward. They both smiled. TJ turned back towards the front of the room as his teacher began explaining the classwork for the day. He started doing the problems on the worksheet and he found that he had _ a lot _easier time concentrating on the problems then he did yesterday.

He sensed his teacher walking up from behind him. “Good job, TJ,” she said from over his shoulder. “I see that highlighting different parts of the problem is really helping you. Let me know if you need any help, but you’re doing a great job. All the problems you’ve done so far are correct. ”

TJ smiled. He could already tell that he was going to do a lot better in math this year.

* * *

**Buffy (3:34pm):** Okay, Cyrus. Do you wanna fill me and Andi in on what went down between you and Iris?

**Andi (3:35pm):** He talked to Iris???

**Buffy (3:35pm): **Yeah! She sat with us at lunch and I seemed to be the only one who was confused about it. Well, Marty was confused too, but JONAH knew what was happening more than I did.

**Cyrus (3:40pm):** Lol, oops, yeah, we talked before lunch.

**Buffy (3:40pm):** About?

**Buffy (3:40pm):** Hello?

**Buffy (3:40pm): **Cyrus?

**Andi (3:41pm): **Give him time to type. You know he has short fingers and can’t reach all the letters as fast.

**Cyrus (3:43pm): **The reason that Jonah knew that I talked to her is because he was kind of the reason why I had too. He invited Amber to sit with us at lunch, and that included Iris by extension. I didn’t want things to be awkward between us at lunch in front of everyone else so I went up to her during my study hall (well, she came up to me actually) and we got all the awkward out then when we were by ourselves. It wasn’t that awkward though actually. She told me that she worked at the aquarium over the summer. Also, I came out to her. She worked in the gift shop and she said that they had the cool little whale figurines that I like. Isn’t that cool?

**Buffy (3:43pm):** I don’t know if I should be proud of you or mad at you after reading that.

**Andi (3:43pm): **Both?

**Buffy (3:44pm): **Both.

**Cyrus (3:44pm):** ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

**Buffy (3:45pm): **Well, I’m glad that she’s accepting and was even cool with sitting right next to you and TJ.

**Cyrus (3:45pm):** Wait… oh no.

**Buffy (3:45pm):** Cyrus! Did you not tell her that you and TJ are dating? It’s your choice who you tell of course, but if she’s gonna be sitting with us at lunch every day then that’s gonna be a lot to hide. You two are constantly touching.

**Cyrus (3:46pm):** Whoops. I’m pretty sure Amber doesn’t know either. Iris knows that I have a boyfriend though so I’m sure they’ll both put it together eventually. Anyway, Andi, how was your second day at SAVA?

**Andi (3:47pm):** Lol it was good but I wanna hear more about your drama.

**Cyrus (3:47pm):** I don’t have drama!

**Buffy (3:48pm): **TJ does though.

**Cyrus (3:49pm):** *did

**Andi (3:49pm): **What?

**Cyrus (3:49pm):** Reed is in TJ’s math class and it was awkward at first, but they talked things out and now they aren’t friends but TJ said he can at least handle being in the same room as him. 

**Andi (3:50pm):** Y’all gotta start live-streaming your days so I can know about all this stuff as it happens.

**Cyrus (3:51pm):** True. Idk if my phone battery can handle that, but we should periodically text each other the biggest thing that happened every hour.

**Buffy (3:52pm):** No, stop, both of you. Don’t text during school.

**Andi (3:52pm): **We can do it as we’re walking in between classes.

**Buffy (3:53pm)**: Omg don’t text and walk. You’ll run into someone.

**Cyrus (3:54pm):** Boo

**Andi (3:54pm):** Boo

**Buffy (3:55pm): **Why are you booing me? I’m right!

**Buffy (3:55pm): **Omg I thought I needed more female friends but Andi you’re just as bad as the guys.

**Andi (3:55pm):** ;)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if the Iris and Cyrus scene doesn't flow right. I forgot that the renaissance fair scene happened and wrote it like he never officially broke up with her at first then had to go back and change it, oops.
> 
> This is the project that Andi is making in her class- https://how-do-it.com/How_to_Make_Paper_Mache_Letters/ 
> 
> Next week is also going to be crazy for me but hopefully I’ll have the next episode out sometime between Friday and Sunday. 
> 
> Also, I feel like I should explicitly say this since at this point it’s almost always certain in Andi Mack fics that TJ and Amber are siblings or cousins but I wanted to make it clear that TJ and Amber aren’t related in this fic. I’m trying to make this as canon-compliant as possible and I know that Emily Skinner (who plays Amber) made an insta story post a few days ago that referred to TJ and Amber as “Kippen Siblings”, but I just feel like it didn’t actually fit into the show. Don’t worry though. There will def be TJ and Amber bonding in the near future.


	3. Loco Hoco

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Episode Synopsis: Everyone is excited for the homecoming dance, but will unexpected hurdles in their plans ruin it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, sorry that this is a few days late but it ended up way longer than I planned for it to be. I debated splitting it in half, but it gets a little angsty in the middle and I didn't want to end it on a bad note so enjoy the 10.5k word monster that this episode somehow became.

_Whoosh. Swish. Pop._

_ Whoosh. Swish. Pop. _

It was a Thursday afternoon after school. TJ was sitting on the edge of his bed rhythmically shooting a tiny foam basketball into a net that was hanging on the back of his bedroom door. The basket had a device under it that automatically shot the ball back to him so he didn't even have to get up to shoot again—unless he missed—but he often found himself sitting in the exact same spot doing the exact same thing. It was second nature for his body to aim exactly at the hoop every time. He didn't even have to think about it. 

_ Whoosh. _The ball left his hand and flew through the air.

_ Swish. _Nothing but net.

_ Pop. _The ball was sent flying back to him.

Cyrus was sprawled out on the floor next to him. He was halfway through gluing together a science project about the water cycle. He finished gluing a giant rain cloud onto it, then looked up at TJ right as he took another shot.

_ Whoosh. Swish. Pop _

"Hey, Teej?"

TJ hummed to signal to Cyrus that he was listening before shooting again.

_ Whoosh. Swish. Pop _

"I'm seeing all four of my parents together in a few days for Rosh Hashana," Cyrus said nervously, hoping TJ would get the implication of what he was saying.

TJ didn't get it. He just replied, "Cool" before shooting again.

_ Whoosh. Swish. Pop. _

“This is one of the only times my parents will all be together in the same room. So it would be a good time to tell them something all at once,” he added.

TJ still didn’t get it. He replied, “Nice.”

_ Whoosh. Swish. Pop. _

"I'm gonna tell them that I'm gay."

_ Whoosh. THUNK. _

The ball hit the back of TJ's door and landed on his carpet a few feet away.

He looked over towards Cyrus, "Uh... sounds good."

Cyrus looked at TJ then at the basketball hoop then back to TJ. "If it really sounded good, you wouldn't have missed."

TJ sighed. It was annoying sometimes how Cyrus could read him like an open book. "It does sound good—you telling your parents. I'll be here to support you. It's just that I was a bit thrown off because you..."

"Used the g-word?"

"Yeah.”

TJ was fine with the fact that he liked Cyrus. He was fine with the fact that he liked a boy. He was fine with the fact that he had never liked a girl. He wasn't fine with calling himself the g-word. He knew it was just a word, but he just couldn't shake the implication of 'otherness' that it held. He had never said it out loud. He had told Cyrus about himself through actions rather than words at Andi's party. He had told his mom without actually saying it when she had caught on to his feelings for Cyrus over the months that he constantly brought the other boy up during dinner conversations. The day after Andi's party, his mom had asked if anything had happened between him and Cyrus. He had nodded, and that was that. He didn't have to say anything. He didn't have to say the g-word. Cyrus, on the other hand, had started casually slipping it into everyday conversations. Every time that he said it, it made TJ feel weird. He knew it was just a word. He just needed more time to get used to it.

"It's not a bad word," Cyrus said as if he was reading TJ’s thoughts.

"I know." TJ jumped off his bed then sat next to Cyrus and grabbed his hand. "Are you nervous about telling them all at once?"

Cyrus shook his head. "Not really. I mean, I always feel kinda nervous at the thought of telling people, but I'm pretty sure they already probably know..."

"Are you gonna tell them that we're together?"

"Yeah, probably. I know my mom. The first thing she's gonna ask me after I tell them is if I'm dating anyone."

TJ looked down nervously. "Does she like me?"

"Yeah. She didn't at first when you were just the mean guy who was bullying Buffy."

TJ cringed.

"_But, _ now she knows you as the guy who helped Jonah with his panic attack at my Bar Mitzvah, reported a gun safety issue to the police, and gave Buffy a ride to class when her leg was messed up so I think she likes you now."

"You told her about all of that?"

"Well, I had to tell her about you driving Buffy since I was your lawyer and she wanted to know why I needed my suit to be dry cleaned in the middle of the week. Also, your mom told me that you constantly talk about me all the time so you can't judge me for talking to my mom about you. Oh! That reminds me, my mom also knows you as the guy who talks about me behind my back," Cyrus said with a smile.

"Is that- Is that good?" TJ asked.

"Oh, yeah, definitely.” He gave TJ’s hand a squeeze. “My mom kinda gossips a lot so she thinks it’s a good thing to be interesting enough that people talk about you when you aren’t there.”

"Cool.”

"Cool."

"Do you wanna make pizza rolls and play MarioKart?” TJ asked.

Cyrus looked down at his project that still lay in an incomplete mess all over TJ’s floor. "I'm still not done my science homework."

"You're almost done. Finish it while I microwave the pizza rolls,” TJ said as he started getting up. He reluctantly let go of Cyrus’s hand.

Cyrus rolled his eyes. "Okay, but you're not allowed to pick Rainbow Road again."

"You're not gonna get better if we just keep playing Luigi Circuit over and over."

Cyrus pouted. "I have more fun when we play the easier tracks. We can also play Mario Circuit since I can't fall off of that one either."

“We can mostly play those two but I’m going to throw in other ones as well. I promise no Rainbow Road.”

“Okay, deal,” Cyrus picked up a glue stick and went back to finishing his project.

TJ started walking towards his door. On his way out, he picked up the foam basketball off the floor aimed it at the hoop.

_ Whoosh. Swish. Pop. _

* * *

"Jeans!" Buffy practically screamed at Cyrus as she walked up to his locker on Friday morning.

"Is that a new hip and trendy greeting that I'm not aware of? Or is the stress of high school taking a bigger toll on you than I thought and you're losing it?" Cyrus asked her.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Neither. I asked Marty what he was wearing to the homecoming dance last night and he said, and I quote, 'probably just a polo that matches your dress and some jeans'. I know that the dance isn't going to be too fancy, but can't he at least wear some nice dress pants?"

Cyrus closed his locker with a little more force than necessary and dramatically turned towards Buffy. "He needs to be stopped."

Buffy threw her hands up into the air. "Thank you! I knew that you would understand. I saw Jonah a few minutes ago and started ranting and he didn't get it at all."

"Jonah is probably planning on wearing jeans as well."

"And he doesn't have a date to tell him not too. Please tell me that TJ has a nice outfit planned."

Cyrus stared at her. He had known about the dance. He had known that Buffy and Marty were going together because they were a couple. Despite all of that, he and TJ going to the dance together had somehow not crossed his mind at all. Were they going to go together? As a couple? Was that part of the agreement of "we can tell people we're together if it comes up" or was that entirely something else? Had TJ thought about it? Was TJ planning on asking him? Should he ask TJ? The dance was only a week away. He should have thought about all this earlier.

Buffy's face fell. "Oh, sorry. Are you two not..."

"I don't know. It might be a lot. I'm gonna come out to my parents on Monday. All four of them. The thought of then going to a big school dance with a guy only a few days later is..."

"Too much?"

"I don't know. I'm still kinda figuring this stuff out. I thought I had it figured out, and then I went and added a boyfriend to the mix so now I have to figure more stuff out."

"At least you're not figuring stuff out alone anymore. Are you gonna talk to him about it?"

"Oh, yeah. Communication is key. Speaking of which, tell Marty not to wear jeans." 

"I don't know.” Buffy sighed. “Do you think that will come off as kinda controlling? It is just an outfit... and a lot of other guys will probably be wearing jeans."

"Does he at least own black ones that he can wear?" Cyrus asked.

"I have no idea. I think he used to, but he could have grown out of them. I haven't seen him wear any recently."

"Text Andi. Tomorrow we're going to the mall and buying your boyfriend the cheapest pair of black jeans we can find so he doesn't ruin the photos of your first high school dance."

* * *

Jonah sat down at the group's lunch table. Hey sat across from Amber, who was the only one who had gotten there before him. "Hey, Amb-"

"Be my homecoming date!”

Jonah stared at her with his mouth hanging half-open.

"Please," she added. "Be my homecoming date, please."

"Amber, I'm sorry but I thought you knew that I don't-"

She shook her head. "Not an actual date. We can go as friends. Just, I need a boy who my parents can take photos of me with. Please. They're being so weird about it. Every day at dinner my mom keeps asking me if I have a date yet. Then my dad keeps calling me and telling me that I'll remember my high school homecoming dances forever, and I need a photo with a date for him to show his grandchildren. Plus, things are still really tense after the divorce, and I know it will be really awkward to have them together taking photos of me if I don't have a date. I know that they like you and won't fight in front of you so... please?"

Jonah stared at her in shock for a few seconds. She had thrown out a lot of information for him to process all at once. "Amber, I- I already told Andi that I would take her since she can't get in without being with someone from Grant, and I thought that I wouldn't have a date so I volunteered to bring her."

Amber groaned and slammed her head down onto the table. She then suddenly shot up. "What about TJ? Would he go with me? I don't really like him, but I'd rather go with him then watch my parents fight."

"Uh, no. Uh... TJ is... He's with... Just, don't ask TJ. Trust me. But, wait. Why don't you like him? He's-"

"Hi, TJ. Hi, Cyrus," Amber said a little too loudly as she looked over past Jonah's shoulder. Jonah took that as a clue to stop talking about TJ.

Marty, Buffy, and Iris arrived a few seconds later and the group started talking about their days, but Jonah couldn't pay attention. It seemed like Amber really needed him. He knew how rough things were with her family life and if being her date could help her parents get along in front of her then he wanted to help. He already promised Andi that he would take her though. Maybe he could tell the school that he was taking Andi so that she was on the list to get in but then go take photos at Amber's house. He would still have to arrive with Andi though because students from a different school had to sign in with their date who went to Grant. Would that be weird? It had never been too awkward that Amber and Andi were both his exes, but would it become awkward if they were _ both _technically his homecoming date? He had no idea what to do.

* * *

"Why don't boy pants have normal sizes?" Andi asked as she held up a pair of jeans.

"Ugh, I know right," Buffy said.

Cyrus rolled his eyes. "Girl pants are the ones with weird sizes."

"How?" Andi asked. "They just have one number. I'm a size 4. That's all I need to know. Why do men's pants have TWO numbers?" She pointed to the tag on the pants she was holding that said ‘36/34’. "And why are they so high? I don't understand."

"The real question is why women's pants have such low numbers. What does size 4 even mean? With men's pants, the numbers actually mean something. The first number is your waist length in inches and the second number is your leg length in inches. That makes sense."

Buffy sighed. "Well, I don't know Marty's waist or leg length so I have no idea what size to get him."

"You could just ask him. It doesn't have to be a secret. You could just tell him you're buying him pants for the dance," Cyrus pointed out.

"I know, but he's probably gonna tell me not to waste my money because he can just wear his stupid jeans."

Cyrus flipped through a pile of black pants for a few seconds before pulling a pair out the pile with a tag that said ‘34/32’. He handed it to Buffy. “Here. These should probably fit him. Marty and I are about the same height and I get 32 in length. I get 32 for the waist as well but I figure he might be a little bigger than me so I went up a bit. ” 

“Wait… you and Marty are the same height?” Buffy asked.

Andi looked equally as shocked. “Yeah, what?” 

“Buffy, you see Marty and I next to each other at lunch every day. How did you not realize that we’re the same height?”

“I don’t know. I guess I still think of you as being short.”

“Buffy, I’m literally taller than you,” Cyrus said as he stood right next to Buffy in an attempt to prove his point. 

“Wait, what?” Buffy tried to compare her height with Cyrus’s but it was hard to tell from her perspective of who was actually taller. “Turn around,” she said to Cyrus, then she turned as well so they were back to back. “Andi, who’s taller?”

Andi looked back and forth between Buffy and Cyrus. She was very hesitant to answer. “Uh… Cyrus definitely has at least half an inch on you.”

Buffy quickly spun around and stared at Cyrus again. “Since when?”

Cyrus squirmed a bit under her gaze. “I don’t know. I kinda grew a lot this summer.”

Buffy was about to say something in response, but Andi suddenly cut in, “Wait! please tell me that TJ is still taller than you. It would be so weird if you were taller than him.”

“Yeah, but I’m up to his eyes now which is… I don't know how I feel about that, and I think he’s stopped growing so I better stop too,” Cyrus said with an awkward laugh as he accidentally knocked several pairs of pants off of a shelf. 

“We can always get him some heels if you pass him,” Andi said. “Speaking of which, can we please get out of the men’s section? I need to find some heels that match my homecoming outfit.”

Buffy nodded. “Yeah, we can’t spend all day in the shoe department though. I need to get home and do homework.”

“Why? Just do it on Monday when we have off,” Andi replied.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that.”

“On behalf of Jewish people everywhere, you’re welcome for the free day off,” Cyrus said as he attempted to refold the pairs of pants that he knocked over and place them back on the shelf. They didn’t look nearly as nice as before despite his best effort. 

Andi nudged him aside and started refolding the pants so they actually looked nice. “Oh, sorry. I guess you still have to do stuff. I’m planning on sleeping in until noon.”

“Yeah, it’s fun though. Sunday night I’ll have a big dinner with my extended family and there’s always a bunch of sweet foods like apples and honey to symbolize a ‘sweet’ new year. I’ll enjoy that obviously since I have more than a bit of a sweet tooth. Then I’ll have to wake up early on Monday for service which used to be boring when I was younger, but I've grown to appreciate it. Then that night I’ll have dinner with all four of my parents… and it will be the perfect time to tell them… you know… about me.” 

Andi stopped folding the pants and looked up at Cyrus. “You're gonna tell all of them?”

Cyrus nodded. “Yeah.”

Buffy put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m proud of you.”

“Me too,” Andi said. 

“Thanks. I think it’s gonna go well. I’ll tell you guys about it on Tuesday, but honestly, I think it’s gonna be a bit anticlimactic.”

Andi finally finished fixing the pants. They looked even nicer than they had before Cyrus knocked them over. “Okay,” she said as she patted the top pair of pants, “Where are the shoes?”

“Can we stop at Auntie Anne’s before we spend an hour looking at shoes?” Cyrus asked. “I’ve been craving cinnamon stick pretzels since I smelled them when we walked in.”

Buffy nodded. “Please.”

“Alright,” Andi agreed. “As long as we can get out of the men’s pants section. I never want to come back here again.”

* * *

It was Monday night. Jonah was pacing around his room. He was feeling really stressed. There hadn’t been school that day due to Rosh Hashanna and he had spent the entire day alone thinking about what he was going to do about his homecoming date situation. In the back of his mind, he knew that his date for one school dance didn’t matter, but he cared deeply for both Amber and Andi and he didn’t want to let either of them down. The longer he spent in his room alone, the more stressed he became. He tried to take a deep breath. His stress levels hadn’t reached a dangerous amount yet, but he knew that he was on the road to having a panic attack soon if he didn’t get things under control. He still didn’t feel comfortable talking too much about his panic attacks, but he had done a bit of research online and found that there are two types—expected and unexpected. Expected panic attacks occured when there was an obvious cue or trigger, while unexpected ones seemed to happen out of nowhere. He read that roughly 50% of people with a panic disorder experienced both unexpected and expected panic attacks. He was pretty sure that he was probably one of that 50%, but he wasn’t quite ready to admit to himself that he did actually have a panic disorder. The word “disorder” felt like a lot to add to his personal identity. The unexpected panic attacks were the worst, but sometimes he could feel expected ones coming when he was extremely stressed. Like he currently was. He needed to do something. He picked up his phone and called Cyrus. 

Cyrus answered after a few rings. “Hey, Jonah.” There was a lot of background noise that sounded like kitchen tools clanging. “I’m about to eat dinner with my parents in a few minutes so I can’t really talk for lo-”

“Help,” Jonah interrupted.

“Hey, are you okay? Should I get my dad? Do you need me to come over?”

Jonah shook his head even though he knew Cyrus couldn’t see him. “No, I’m not… it’s not… I’m okay, for now. I just- I needed to talk to someone.”

“Yeah, okay. I’m here for you. One sec.” 

Jonah heard muffled noises on the other side of the phone that sounded like Cyrus was talking to his mom before he heard a door shut. He assumed that Cyrus went to a different room since he could no longer hear the background noise. 

“Okay,” Cyrus said. “What’s up.”

“Andi needs someone who goes to Grant to be her date so she can be on the list to get in, and I didn’t have a date since I’m single so I told her that I would take her.”

“Right,” Cyrus said. “I knew that.”

“Yeah,” Jonah took a deep breath, “But then a few days later Amber told me that her parents are being really weird about her having a date for the dance. Like, they are insisting that she needs to take a photo with a guy so she can show it to her kids someday or something. Plus, both of her parents want to be there to take photos of her before the dance. She says that her parents like me and won’t fight around me, so basically she wants me to be her date. It sounds like she really needs me to be there for her, but- but I already promised Andi. I thought that maybe I could officially bring Andi on paper just so her name is on the list to get in, but then take photos with Amber, but they’re both my exes and I don’t want to cause drama or make things weird.” 

“Hey, Jonah. It’s okay,” he heard Cyrus say calmly from his phone. 

Jonah tried to breathe but it was getting harder. “It’s not though, Cyrus. I know that whoever I don’t go with is going to have a bad time, and I don’t want to be the reason for that.”

“It’s not your fault Jonah. You were put in a difficult situation, but it will be okay. I can take Andi.”

Jonah exhaled. “Are you sure? What about TJ?”

“Like you said, she just has to be someone’s date on paper so that she can get in. She doesn’t have to actually be my date. Plus, I never had feelings for her or anything and TJ definitely knows that, so I’m sure that it won’t cause drama.”

Jonah could feel himself start to relax. “Thanks, Cy. I owe you a lot.”

“Yeah, no prob-” Jonah heard what sounded like knocking from Cyrus’s side of the call. “I gotta go. I’ll see you tomorrow at school. Text me if you need anything and I’ll try to get back to you as soon as I can!”

“Yeah, see ya tomorrow. Thanks a lot.” Jonah ended the call. He lied down on his bed for a few minutes to let himself calm down before he picked up his phone and started to text Amber. 

* * *

Cyrus took his phone down from his ear. He knew that he had made the right decision by helping Jonah, and that what he had said to him was true. Andi was just going to be his date on paper. He could still go with TJ. That was the thing though. He and TJ still hadn’t really talked about if they were going together. Obviously, they were planning on hanging out at the dance together, but they hadn’t discussed how coupley they were going to be. Most of their school was going to be at the dance. Everyone would see if he and TJ wore matching outfits or took photos together or danced together… and it was a lot to consider. Especially since he was about to come out to his parents. One stress-inducing situation revolving around his sexuality was enough for one night. He would talk to TJ later. The dance was coming up, but they still had four days to figure stuff out. Everything would be fine.

“Cyrus, are you coming?” he heard his mom say from the other side of the bathroom door.

“Yeah, I just need to wash my hands.” 

Cyrus took a deep breath and looked at himself in the mirror. He could do this. It was gonna be fine. He walked out of the bathroom door and into the kitchen. All four of his parents were already sitting at the table waiting for him. 

“Hi, thanks for finally joining us,” his mom joked.

“Sorry,” Cyrus said as he sat down at the head of the table so that one set of parents was on either side of him. “My friend Jonah was having homecoming date issues. It’s all sorted out though.” He grabbed a bowl of mashed potatoes from the center of the table and started scooping some onto his plate. Dinner the night before had been full of traditional Jewish dishes, but this one was mostly made up of Cyrus and his parents’ favorite foods. 

“How’s Jonah doing these days?” his dad asked. 

“Oh, he’s doing great,” Cyrus answered even though he wasn’t sure if that was the case. He knew that Jonah still hadn’t talked to his parents about his panic attacks. He didn’t think that they were going to get better if Jonah continued to keep them a secret. 

“So… Jonah has a date to the dance?” Todd asked as he shared a glance with Cyrus’s mom. 

“Oh, yeah. I think he’s going with Amber. I’m pretty sure that I told you that they used to date, but they are just friends now.”

"Do you have a date?” his mother asked.

There it was. It had happened sooner into dinner than Cyrus had expected it too, but he had also been waiting for it for months—the perfect segway into coming out. Or, at least it would have been the perfect segway ten minutes ago when he assumed that his date was TJ. But now, he was going with Andi too, but not really. Was he actually going with TJ though? He probably was, but it wasn’t official yet. 

“Is everything alright?” Sharon asked.

Cyrus took a deep breath.”I- no.” 

All four of his parents stared at him expectantly but he couldn’t think of the right words for what he needed to say.

“It’s okay, Cyrus,” his dad said. Cyrus made eye contact with his dad, and he instantly became full of relief because he saw in his dad’s eyes that he knew. He knew what Cyrus was trying to say, and Cyrus could see the encouragement in his father’s eyes. It was gonna be okay.

“I do have a date,” Cyrus said as he nervously pushed around a glob of mashed potatoes with his fork. 

His mom perked up. “Oh really? Who’s the lucky girl?”

Cyrus glanced over to his dad for support. His dad gave him a small smile in return. Todd and Sharon were giving him similar looks. Cyrus realized that the only one who hadn’t figured it out already was his mother. He looked her in the eyes. “It’s not a girl.” He didn’t wait for her to respond before adding, “My date is a boy.”

There it was. He had finally said it. Cyrus felt like the next few seconds were happening in slow motion. He could see every single individual shift in his mother’s face as she processed what he had just said. Finally, after what felt like an eternity she said, “So you’re going as friends?”

Cyrus didn’t know whether to laugh or scream. He didn’t do either. He just continued to stare at his mother. “No.”

“Leslie,” his father said, and it was as if the sound of his voice had pulled Cyrus out of some weird bubble that he and his mother had been in. He suddenly remembered that he had three other parents at the table with him. Cyrus turned towards them. They all looked a bit shocked and worried, but they weren’t looking at him. They were all looking at his mother.

“Cyrus,” she said. He turned back towards her. “You’re only fourteen.”

Out of all of the responses Cyrus had imagined her having when he pictured this conversation in his head, that was not one of them. He had thought that she would tell him that she knew, or she would immediately ask who he liked, or she wouldn’t say anything and would just hug him. Anything other than what was actually happening. He took a deep breath. “I’ve known that I’m gay for a while, mom. I am, by the way. Gay.”

“But Cyrus-”

“Leslie,” Todd interrupted her. “Please don’t make this hard for him.”

Cyrus’s mother looked back and forth between her son and her husband. “I’m sorry. I just- I’m having a hard time processing this. Cyrus, you have to understand that you’re my only son and I’ve been imagining your future ever since you were born. I have these images in my head of you at prom with a girl in a red dress, and then your wedding. Did I ever tell you that one of the reasons that I named you Cyrus is because I thought it would look beautiful in cursive on a wedding invitation? Oh, and I’ve always wanted grandchildren, and-”

“I can still do all that,” Cyrus cut in. “Well, minus the red dress.”

“Leslie,” Cyrus’s dad said. “You can’t say that he’s too young to know he wants to be with a boy then go on about how you’ve been picturing him with a girl since he was a baby. Do you even hear yourself?” 

His mom sighed. “I know. I know. It’s just- What am I going to tell everyone?”

“You don’t have to tell them anything.” Cyrus’s dad said. 

Cyrus couldn’t help but notice the way that his parents were glaring at each other. Were they fighting? He couldn’t tell if they were fighting. He hadn’t seen them fight in years. Dinner wasn’t going as well as he thought it would. At all. He looked down at his plate. Suddenly he wasn’t very hungry anymore. He looked up. His parents were continuing to bicker over his hypothetical future. He suddenly really didn’t want to be sitting at that table anymore. He stood up.

“I’m gonna go to bed.”

"Wait, are you sure?” Sharon asked. “It’s only 7:30.”

Cyrus didn’t say anything. He just nodded and left. He was suddenly very thankful that he was at his father’s house that night. He went up to his room and shut the door. He didn’t turn on the light. He just climbed onto his bed. He thought about crying, or calling TJ, or texting the GHC group chat. He didn’t do any of that. He just stared at the ceiling for what felt like hours. 

Eventually, he heard his door open. “Are you okay?” he heard Sharon ask.

“Are they still fighting?”

“No, your mother and Todd left a few minutes ago. We talked to her a bit. She’ll… come around. She already has a bit. I promise.”

Cyrus hummed in response. He didn’t know what to say.

“Your father and I are very proud of you,” Sharon added. 

Cyrus hummed again.

“Do you want anything else to eat?”

Cyrus lied in silence for a second. He debated saying no so he could be alone again, but he suddenly realized how hungry he actually was. “Do we have any chocolate chocolate chip muffins left?”

* * *

Buffy leaned onto Marty’s locker. He didn’t seem to be at school yet so she pulled out her phone and saw that she had a new text from Andi:

**Andi (7:28am): **Hey, did you see Cyrus this morning? He didn’t text us last night and I’m worried. 

Buffy sent a reply:

**Buffy (7:37am): **No, but I usually don’t see him in the morning because he and TJ walk to homeroom together. I’m sure that him not texting us means that everything went well though.

“Hey,” Marty said as he walked up to Buffy. “You said you had something for me?”

“Yeah,” she unzipped her backpack and pulled out the pants that she had gotten for him at the mall. “I hope this isn’t weird, but I got these for you to wear to the dance on Friday.”

“Oh, uh, okay,” Marty said as he awkwardly took the pants from her. 

Buffy looked at the slight frown on his face and started to wonder if she had made a mistake. “You don’t have to wear them! It’s just- I thought they would look good on you and would help your outfit match my outfit and... sorry if you feel like I’m being controlling.”

Marty’s eyes widened. “What? No, I don’t think you’re being controlling. Sorry, I just was kinda confused at why you were giving me pants in the middle of the hallway at school. I like them though. I’ll wear them. Thanks for thinking about me.”

“Are you sure? Because I know that you didn’t like it when your ex tried to make you do stuff. 

Marty shoved the pants into his bag then grabbed Buffy’s hand. “Hey, this is completely different. You went out of your way to buy me a gift and you’re letting me choose whether or not I want to accept it. That’s way different then Rachel trying to force me not to talk to someone that I had been friends with long before I met her. I am accepting your gift, by the way. I trust your fashion judgment more than mine.”

Buffy smiled. “My fashion sense isn’t that great. Andi and Cyrus have just rubbed off on me a bit.” 

“Oh yeah,” Marty agreed. “People compliment their outfits all the time. I should take pointers from them. I actually need a lot of new clothes since most of mine from last year don’t fit anymore.”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “You boys all need to stop growing.”

The one minute bell rang. 

“I guess we gotta go,“ Marty said. “Remind me to pay for you at The Spoon after school though so we’re even for the pants.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I know, but I want to.”

Buff squeezed his hand before letting go. She started walking towards her first-period class but Marty called out from behind her, “Hey, you know what would look great with my homecoming outfit?”

She turned around. “What?”

“My toe shoes.”

“Get to class, Martin.”

* * *

Cyrus had just finished grabbing the books he needed for that night’s homework. He was about to close his locker when TJ came up behind him.

"Hey,” TJ said. “You were quiet at lunch."

Cyrus shrugged. "Oh, yeah. I didn't really have anything to say, and Marty seemed to really want to talk about his weird shoes so I just let him speak."

"Cyrus, you always have something to say. Is something wrong?"

"It's just... things didn't go great last night and it's all I can think about, and I didn't really want to talk about it with everyone at lunch. I know that they would be supportive and everything. It’s just..." Cyrus closed his locker with a sigh.

“They wouldn’t get it?” TJ asked as they started to walk towards the front doors.

Cyrus nodded. “I know Buffy means well but I was afraid that she would get angry and I didn’t want that.” 

TJ reached over and grabbed his hand. “I’m sorry. Do you wanna talk about it with me?"

"Yeah." Cyrus sighed. “Honestly, it wasn’t that bad. Three out of four were cool with… it.”

TJ hesitated before asking, “Who was the one who wasn’t cool with it? Sharon?”

“Nope. She still hasn’t conformed to the stereotype of an evil stepmother. It’s my mom, and she’s just- She could have been worse. She was just surprised… somehow.” Cyrus tried to laugh but the sound came out more like he was choking. “Sharon told me that she thinks she’ll come around though.”

"I'm sorry Cy. I know it must have been hard to tell four people at once and I'm proud of you.” TJ paused for a second. “I guess we aren't taking homecoming photos at your house then?"

Cyrus nervously started fidgeting with the strap of his messenger bag. “About that... we haven't really talked about the dance. I- we're going together, right?"

TJ nodded, but he looked slightly confused. "Yeah. I thought that was implied. Why? Were you waiting for me to ask you? Should I have made a poster?"

"No, I was just making sure. Uh, should we wear matching outfits?"

"Do you want to wear matching outfits?"

"Yes.”

“Cool. Uh, I’m not really good with this type of stuff. Do you have any idea…”

Cyrus nodded. “I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Don’t worry. I know you have a light blue dress shirt. So, I was thinking I can wear a dark blue shirt with a light blue tie and you can wear your light blue shirt with a dark blue tie. Don't worry. I have a tie you can borrow."

"Sounds good." 

Cyrus stopped walking all of a sudden. "Uh, Teej?”

“Yeah?” TJ stopped as well and looked back at him.

“I should probably tell you that the school thinks I'm going with Andi. 

"Wait, what? Why?"

Cyrus could feel TJ’s grip on his hand loosen a bit so he squeezed back harder. "Don’t worry. There was this whole thing with Jonah and who he was taking as his date. Amber needs him to help deal with her family issues, but Andi also needs to go with someone from Grant since she goes to SAVA, and Jonah doesn’t want to go with both of them since they are both his exes and he thought it was gonna be awkward. So, I’m going with Andi, but just on paper, so she can get in. I think we have to sign in together but that’s it."

TJ stared blankly at Cyrus. "Uh, I’m pretty sure I only understood half of that. But, basically… you’re saying that you just have to be Andi’s connection to Grant so she can get in?"

“Yeah.”

“Okay.”

They continued walking towards the doors. Cyrus was already feeling emotionally drained from the events of last night and opening up about it to TJ, but he knew that he had to ask TJ more about the dance now while they were still talking about it or he would keep putting it off. "So,” Cyrus said. “We're matching like a couple?"

“Yes. I thought we established that." TJ had reached the front doors of the school. He let go of Cyrus’s hand to grab the door handle and held the door open for Cyrus. 

“Yes, but do you want to _ act _ like a couple? Like, on the dance floor?" Cyrus asked as he walked through.

“Oh,” TJ stopped in the doorway. "I don’t know... I was thinking that we could just do what feels right in the moment."

"Okay. Sounds good.”

TJ sighed and let the door swing shut behind him. He became very aware of all the students that were waiting for their buses around him and Cyrus now that they were outside. He lowered his voice a bit. "I wish it didn't have to be like this. I wish we could just be like Marty and Buffy and just go to the dance and have fun and not think about what our parents or classmates will think.” After a few seconds, he added, “Sorry, I know that you’re upset and now I’m probably making you more upset.” 

Cyrus shook his head. "It’s okay. You can always talk about this kind of stuff with me. I feel the same way."

TJ smiled and nudged Cyrus’s side with his own. "Do you wanna come over and watch a movie?"

Cyrus smiled back. "Yes, something that I can sing along to please."

* * *

It was finally Friday night, and Buffy was very thankful that Marty didn’t actually wear his toe shoes with his homecoming outfit. She didn’t think he would, but she started to get a little scared after he spent literally an entire lunch period talking about how great he thought they were. He did wear the pants she got him though, along with a purple collared shirt that matched her dress. Buffy walked up to where Marty was waiting outside of the school’s gym with the rest of their friend group. Amber and Jonah were both wearing red, and they both looked more relaxed then Buffy had seen them look all week. Iris was in a pink floral dress and Andi was in a bright yellow romper that she somehow pulled off extremely well. Lastly, TJ and Cyrus were both wearing blue.

“Hey,” Buffy said. “We all look so colorful. I love it.”

“I know!” Andi said excitedly. “We didn’t even plan it. I had no idea what half of you were wearing.”

“Are we all here now?” Marty asked. “I wanna get inside before they run out of snacks.”

Amber nodded. “Yeah, last year they ran out of cookies like ten minutes into the dance.”

Marty grabbed Buffy’s arm and started to drag her towards the door. “We better go then.”

“Wait!” Andi said as she jumped in front of Marty. “We need to take a selfie first!”

Marty groaned. “Ugh. Don’t they have a photo booth inside?”

Andi rolled her eyes. “Yeah, but the second we get in there, we’re gonna get hit by the wave of body heat of a bunch of sweaty teenagers. We should take a photo now while we all look nice.”

Ten seconds and one selfie that was taken in horrible lighting later, Marty had already started pulling Buffy towards the door again. They quickly went up to a table with chaperones and had their names crossed off of a list before they went into the gym. Right before she entered the extremely loud gym that was already filled with students dancing, Buffy noticed TJ out of the corner of her eye. Andi was next to Cyrus as they signed in with the chaperones, and TJ was standing a few feet behind them looking very out of place. Buffy didn’t have time to dwell on it before Marty pulled her towards the snacks.

* * *

Amber was happier than she had been in what felt like months as she stepped onto the dance floor. She was so happy that Jonah had ended up agreeing to take photos with her. It was the first time in over a year that her parents had been in the same room with each other without fighting. Instead of going after each other, their focus had been on being nice to Jonah. Amber knew that she should talk to someone about the divorce. She had talked about it to Iris and Jonah a little bit. She didn’t really know what to say though. She had seen it coming, and she could already see that her parents were better apart then they were together even after only about seven months of being divorced. It still hurt though, but she didn’t really know why. She didn’t necessarily want her parents to get back together, but she just wished that they could get along for her sake. She wished that they could be like they were in front of Jonah all the time. Instead, they usually started immediately fighting whenever they had to be near each other.

“Oh my gosh, I love this song!” Iris screamed at Amber as the opening cords for “Party in the USA” started to play. 

The entire room of students started singing along. Amber threw her hands up in the air and screamed the words as loudly as she could. She could think about her family problems later. At that moment, she just wanted to let herself have fun.

* * *

TJ was not having a good time. He had already spilled dark fruit punch on his light shirt, and the stain had only gotten worse when he tried to wipe it off. Plus, he wasn’t much of a dancer, so he just kinda stood to the side and watched as Cyrus danced with Andi and Buffy. Thankfully, Marty wasn’t really dancing either, so at least TJ had someone else to awkwardly stand off to the side along with him.

Marty turned to him and started saying something but TJ could barely hear him. It sounded like he said, “Hey, dude. Art you nerd rust for basket wall?”

TJ thought that maybe Marty said something about basketball, so he nodded. Apparently, that was the wrong response because Marty looked very confused. TJ was about to say something to help dissolve the awkwardness when Cyrus came up to him.

“Hey, Cy,” TJ said. “What’s up, dude?”

Cyrus stared at TJ. TJ was confused. Why was Cyrus looking at him like that? Did he mishear what TJ had said and thought he had said something awful instead?

Cyrus continued to stare at him for a few seconds before loudly asking over the music, “TJ, can we uh, go talk somewhere for a second?”

“Are you gonna leave me alone?” Marty asked.

Cyrus motioned towards Jonah, who was also standing awkwardly, but next to Iris and Amber. “You can go hang with Jonah.”

Marty nodded and walked away towards Jonah.

“Uh, we can go to the guy’s locker room. It’s probably empty,” TJ half yelled over the loud music.

Cyrus nodded and they walked in silence towards the locker room. TJ debated reaching out for his hand, but something felt off between them and he suddenly felt nervous. They got to the locker room, and once the door was shut, they could barely hear the music from the dance. TJ looked into Cyrus’s eyes and waited for him to speak.

“I- what's happening?” Cyrus asked.

“I don't know.”

“This is a date right? We're here as dates?”

“Yes. I don’t know. I- It’s just- Honestly, it feels weird because you came with Andi.”

“Sorry. I told you we just had to sign in together. I was gonna ask you if you wanted to dance with me, but then you called me dude! Dates usually don’t call each other that.”

TJ frowned. “What do you want me to call you?”

“I don't know. Something cute and romantic that differentiates me from your basketball bros. You call Marty ‘dude’ all the time, and just… I wanna be special,” Cyrus admitted.

“Sorry. I’m new at this.” TJ smiled awkwardly. “Uh, what do you want me to call you then. Babe?”

“Ew, no.” Cyrus said immediately before adding, “Sorry, but uh, my mom dated a guy before she met Todd who always called her babe and baby and he ended up being a total jerk. So, maybe not that one.”

TJ thought for a few seconds before asking, “Darling?”

Cyrus couldn’t help but laugh. “TJ, I'm a teenage boy. Not a 1950s southern housewife.”

“I’m sorry. I told you I’m bad at this.” TJ paused for a second, but then his face suddenly lit up as he got an idea. “What about beef?”

Cyrus stared at him in shock. “What? TJ, please tell me I heard you wrong and you didn't just call me beef?”

TJ groaned and put his head in his hands. “I- yes, but it sounded better in my head.” He looked back up at Cyrus. “It's because you call me Teej, which is TJ with ‘E’s in the middle right? So I took bf, which you know is short for boyfriend, and added ‘E’s in the middle..."

Cyrus couldn’t stop himself from laughing. “Oh my god, nevermind. You can just keep calling me Underdog. It doesn’t sound very romantic, but at least it kinda has a special meaning and it’s better than beef.”

“Hey, you don’t have a cute nickname for me either!”

“You didn’t ask for one, and I don’t go around calling you ‘dude’. Do you want a nickname? I can make a list of them tonight, and I definitely won’t include the word ‘beef.” 

TJ sighed. “I’m never gonna hear the end of this? Am I?”

Cyrus shook his head.

“Wait,” TJ said before nervously asking, “What about muffin?”

Cyrus smiled. “That could work.”

TJ let out an exhale as he smiled back.

Cyrus grabbed his boyfriend’s hands. “I’m sorry that I came with Andi. I should have made Jonah talk things out with her and Amber.”

“No, it's fine. You were just being a good friend.”

Cyrus squeezed his hands. “Do you wanna go back out?”

TJ looked over towards the door then back at Cyrus. “I don't know. The music they were playing kinda sucked and I like being in here alone with you... You look really nice tonight. Did I tell you that?”

“You look nice too.”

“Thanks. I was warned by Andi to not wear jeans.”

Cyrus laughed. “I’m glad that you listened to her. Remind me to tell you about how her and Buffy lost their minds in a men’s pants section.” 

TJ laughed then suddenly let go of Cyrus’s hands. “Wait, I have an idea. One sec.”

TJ pulled out his phone and started typing rapidly. A few seconds later, he put it down on a bench next to them as the sound of a piano started to play.

He slowly walked back over towards Cyrus. “Can I, uh, have this dance?”

Cyrus grinned at him. “Of course.” He wrapped his hands loosely around TJ’s neck, and felt as TJ slowly wrapped his arms around just above his waist.

“What’s this song?” Cyrus asked.

“It’s called ‘I’m Confessin’. Performed by Thelonious Monk.”

“Wow, I know a guy who is named after him.”

TJ smiled. “Is he cool?"

“Yeah, he's pretty niceberg." 

"Stop." TJ tried to look mad but he couldn’t. 

"He's my beef, actually."

“I’m never opening my mouth around you ever again,” TJ said, but he couldn’t wipe the grin off his face.

Cyrus looked TJ up and down then sighed.

“What’s wrong?” TJ asked.

“Andi is right. We need to get you heels. Sometimes I hate how we are almost the same height now, and this is one of those times.”

“Why?”

“I want to put my head on your chest but… Wait.” TJ watched as Cyrus slowly started to sink into a straddle until his head was at the same height as TJ’s chest.

“Is that better?” TJ asked.

"Yes, but we probably look so weird right now." 

“I don’t care.” 

They stayed like that for a few more seconds before the song ended. Another one didn't start to play, so TJ reached down to grab his phone while trying to not let go of Cyrus. He was about to put on a different song when he saw a notification. “Wanna go look weird in the gym instead? Andi just texted me that she requested ‘Born This Way’ and the DJ is playing it next."

Cyrus instantly jumped back up to his normal standing position. "Yes! But why did she text you that and not me?"

TJ shrugged as he looked at Cyrus. Standing with him in that locker room, it felt like that for just for that moment that they were in their own little world where everything was perfect. Where they didn’t have to be afraid of how anyone would react. Where a certain word and the ‘otherness’ that it conveyed didn’t matter. TJ smiled, “She knows that I listen to gayer music than you."

Cyrus smiled back at him. “It’s true. You own both _ Born This Way _ and _ Blue Neighborhood _ on vinyl."

“That means nothing. I own everything on vinyl. I have the _ Shrek _ soundtrack on vinyl.”

“What? Where did you even get that?”

“Walmart. It’s green,” TJ said as he grabbed Cyrus’s hand. They started walking back to the gym.

* * *

Jonah couldn’t help but notice how happy Amber had been all night. It was the first time that he had seen her completely relaxed and having fun in a while. So, he was very surprised when he saw her stop dancing and walk out of the gym after a Lady Gaga song had finished playing. Jonah didn’t want to leave Marty alone, but he noticed that TJ and Cyrus had come back from wherever they had run off too, so he decided to follow Amber out of the gym and make sure that she was okay. He found her sitting on the floor holding a cup of water and fanning her face.

She looked up at him. “Hey, I was getting really hot in there.”

“Yeah,” Jonah said as he noticed how much cooler the temperature had gotten after he walked out of the gym. He sat down next to Amber. “You looked like you were having fun though.”

Amber nodded. “Yeah, it was nice being able to just let go of all the things I’ve been thinking about lately and just have fun for a bit.’

Jonah looked at the time on his phone. “Well, the dance is still going on for another half an hour.”

“Yeah, I’ll go back in. Sitting here with you is also nice though. Thanks again for agreeing to be the barrier between me and my family issues tonight.”

“Hey, I know that this has been hard for you, and I’m glad that I’ve been able to help, but I also don’t really fully understand what it’s like to have divorced parents. I know that Cyrus gets it though, and he would definitely be willing to talk about it with you. You don’t have to talk to him about it if you don’t want to, and I’m still here for you if you ever need to talk to me, but I think you should reach out to him as well.”

Amber sighed. “Yeah, I know that I’m keeping my feelings bottled up a bit more than I should be. I’ll definitely talk to Cyrus eventually. I wanna talk to him when he’s alone though and he always seems to be with TJ recently.”

“Hey, speaking of TJ. I was wondering why you seem to not like hi-”

“There you guys are!” 

Amber and Jonah turned to see Andi walking towards them. 

“Hey, Andiman,” Jonah said while trying to keep his voice even. It was the first time that all three of them were alone together since he had broken up with both of them, and he didn’t know if things were gonna be awkward.

“Hey,” she greeted back. “Amber, did I tell you that I love your dress? Because I do! You look so amazing!” She sat down in front of both of them.

Amber smiled and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Thanks. You look great too. You always look great though. One of the main reasons I get excited for parties and dances now is because I’m excited to see what amazing outfit you’re gonna wear next.”

Jonah looked back and forth between both of them.

“You look good too, Jonah,” Andi added.

“Oh, yeah. I can’t wait to post the photos of us on Insta,” said Amber.

“Oh my gosh, Amber we should get a photo of us too. Jonah, can you take it?” Andi asked as she was already handing Jonah her phone.

“Um, yeah,” Jonah said as he took the phone. By the time that he opened the camera, Amber and Andi were already standing up and posing. “Uh, say ‘cheese’, I guess?”

Amber rolled her eyes. “Jonah, you say ‘cheese’ for smiling photos. We can’t smile for this one. We have to look fierce.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“Jonah, please just take the phone,” Andi said.

Jonah took at least ten photos from slightly different angles and hoped that they would like at least one of them as he handed Andi back her phone.

Andi swiped through the photos. “Ooo! I like this one a lot!” she said as she showed a photo to Amber.

“Oh, yeah, send it to me, please.”

Jonah looked back and forth between the two girls. He wondered why he had had the weird idea that things would be tense between them because of him, when in reality they were barely even noticing that he was there.

“Yo, Jonah, dude!’ he heard Marty scream from the direction of the gym.

“What’s up?”

Marty ran over and started pushing Jonah back towards the gym. “They're playing the Jonas Brothers and I’m Nick and TJ is Joe. We need you to be Kevin."

Jonah stopped. “What, why am _ I _Kevin?”

Marty rolled his eyes and continued to try and push him. “Because you weren’t there to call Nick or Joe. Now, come on!”

Andi and Amber watched as Marty and Jonah disappeared back into the gym.

“Cyrus, Buffy, and I are really going to regret introducing those three to each other. Aren’t we?” Andi asked Amber.

“Yeah. I swear I thought they were gonna start a food fight at lunch last week.”

Andi laughed. “Yeah, I can see that happening. Do you wanna go back inside and dance together?”

“Yeah, Bambi. Let’s go.”

* * *

The ending chords of “Come On Eileen"echoed through the gym as the lights flickered on. Hundreds of students simultaneously groaned as they tried to adjust their eyes. 

"Thanks for coming out everyone. One again, my name is DJ Macaroni. Be sure to look me up on SoundCloud and hit me up on Facebook if you need some fire tunes for your Sweet Sixteen parties.”

“I really hope they don’t hire him for any other dances,” Andi said to the group as they started pushing their way through the mass of students to get outside. “Did he seriously think that we enjoyed hearing him ruin every song by playing air horns every five seconds?”

“I don’t know. I thought he was good,” Marty said.

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Of course you did.”

“Are we still all on for The Spoon tomorrow?” Andi asked.

She was met with a chorus of “yeah”s and “sure”s from the rest of the group. 

“Yeah, my shift starts at 10, so if you get there around noon then I can probably take my break while you’re there,” Amber said.

As soon as they got outside, Cyrus spotted his mom’s car waiting in line to pick him up. He looked over at TJ. “That’s me.” He sighed. “This is the first night I'm going to her house since… ya know.”

TJ reached down and gave his hand a squeeze. “Text me tonight if you need to.”

Cyrus smiled. “I was planning on texting you anyway. Who else am I going to send all the cute animal photos that I find on Instapic?”

Tj smiled. “Night, Muffin.”

“Night, Beef.”

“Cyrus, I am begging you to not make that a thing.” 

“Fine. Goodnight, Teej.”

Cyrus reluctantly let go of TJ’s hand and turned towards the rest of his friends. “See ya tomorrow, guys.”

Buffy and Andi both gave him hugs before he started walking towards his mom’s car. He briefly considered getting into the back seat but he figured that would just make things more awkward, so he opened the door to the passenger’s seat and hopped in.

“Hi, honey,” his mom said with a smile.

Cyrus buckled his seatbelt then looked straight ahead out the windshield. “Hey.”

His mom continued to look at him. “How was the dance?”

Cyrus continued to look straight forward. “Good.”

His mom stared at him for a few more moments before shifting the car into drive and pulling out of the line of other parents picking up their kids. “Did anything super exciting happen?”

Cyrus shrugged. “I guess so…”

“Do you wanna tell me about it?” She drove the car out of the school’s parking lot and onto the main road. 

Cyrus could feel the beginning of tears forming behind his eyes. He wanted to tell his mom. He wanted to tell her everything. He didn’t know if he could. “I don’t know.”

Cyrus’s mom abruptly stopped the car in the middle of the road. “Cyrus, you can talk to me.” The driver in the car behind them honked. She quickly pulled the car to the side of the road then waved sheepishly at the driver as they angrily passed her. She turned towards Cyrus. “I’m sorry about how I reacted on Monday. I don’t want you to feel like you have to hide anything from me. I had these ideas about the person I thought you were going to be in my head.” She reached out and grabbed his wrist. He thought about pulling away but he didn’t. She continued. “I wrongly focused on my fantasies of who I wanted you to become instead of looking around me and appreciating the person that you are actually becoming.” Cyrus still hadn’t looked at her but he could tell from her voice that she was about to cry. “And I’m very proud of the person you’re becoming. I want you to know that, okay?”

“Okay,” Cyrus could feel tears forming in his eyes and they began to blur his vision. He looked towards his mom. “Mom, I love you but I want you to know that you hurt me. I spent a long time being scared about who I am, and then I finally felt ready to tell you and-” He stopped to take a deep breath. 

His mom took off her seatbelt then climbed over the car’s center console to hug him. “Oh honey, I’m so sorry. I love you so much and I never meant to make you upset. It might take me some time to get used to things, but I promise I’ll try my hardest.”

Cyrus hugged her back. “Thanks, mom.”

After a few seconds, she let go of him. She put her seatbelt back on then pulled back onto the road. 

After a few minutes, she asked, “So… did the exciting thing that happened happen with TJ?”

“Yes,” Cyrus said quietly. 

“Was he your date?”

“Yes,” he practically whispered. 

“He’s the one who talks about you?”

“Mhm.”

They didn’t talk for the rest of the car ride home. Cyrus looked out the window and tried to even out his breathing. A few minutes later, the car pulled into their driveway. As soon as his mom shifted to park, Cyrus started to take off his seatbelt. 

He was about to open the car door when his mom quietly said, “I really like TJ.”

Cyrus paused for a moment and smiled. “I really like him too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I'm not Jewish but I included Cyrus talking a bit about Rosh Hashana in this chapter, and all the information that I know about it I got from a Google search, so please let me know if I got anything wrong. Same with the information about panic attacks.
> 
> Also, here is a link to the basketball hoop that TJ has on his door. It's not even a headcanon that he owns this. It's just a fact- https://tinyurl.com/yymfafx6
> 
> Also, there really is a green Shrek vinyl- https://www.stereogum.com/2046999/the-shrek-soundtrack-is-finally-being-released-on-vinyl/news/


End file.
